A TAXI RIDE

God can come to you at any moment, in any place;  if your heart is truly open. It’s all about HEART guys.

The other morning we were on our way to this prison outside Bogota, Colombia. It was early rush hour so the streets were packed with people everywhere: young, old, rich, poor, common, official. As you know, it is the same in the many, many, cities all over the world: 7 billion people.

But as I sat in the taxi, gazing out the window at all the people, I wondered what if one man yelled out “I’m going to change the world”. No one would even flinch. Of course it would be quite absurd. Then I imagined the tiny, remote overcrowded city I once visited called Jerusalem.

There, one morning, long ago, amidst such multitudes, one ordinary nobody stood in such a rush hour and yelled out that he was going to give something to change the entire world (Jn.7:37-38).  Did He really expect people to stop, listen and change? I don’t think so.

Amongst all the loud clamor, no one really pays attention to anyone else, too busy getting to work.  So what about this ordinary guy; “who had no stately form or majesty that we would look at Him, nor an appearance that we would even notice Him… and was oppressed and afflicted” (Is.53)? We know he was homeless because he explained “…foxes have holes and bird have nests but I have no place to lay my head”.  So why and how, out of nowhere, for what motive, would  this common man make such a seemingly ridiculous claim?

It astounds and  baffles me to realize everything Jesus did was a WORLD EVENT but there was no fanfare.  No one even noticed.  He was no different than anybody walking the streets. What could he do to “change” a world world 20,000 miles around?  Was he going to stop its’ rotation or heal all diseases? Maybe create a utopia. His dynamic was in the massive power of His resolute will hidden within His body.

So let’s just sit and ponder for a moment the plan Jesus was shouting about. We know that when Adam sinned God’s original purpose for mankind to walk in His love was thwarted.  Satan tore the heart of man away from Gods’ love by luring Adam and Eve into sinful rebellion.

So God turned His back on man? No. God instantaneously, inaugurated an even far greater  plan.  Jesus agreed with the Father to implement a plan to redeem the entire world, one person at a time.

Tragically, this plan would require the torture of Jesus. Why? Because the entire body and soul of man became defiled.  Salvation would not take place in some kind of doctrinal theory land ‘out there’. God would put His Son in the very heart of a man.

The one and only way Jesus could transmit His work of salvation to us would be through sharing a common body of sin. So, although Jesus did not sin, yet He took on a body of sinful flesh (Rm.8:1-4/2 Cor. 5:21). And by sharing in this body and soul with all mankind it is “where” Jesus would execute His plan of redemption. The body of Jesus would become the battlefield, where He would take on our sinful flesh to win the human soul back from Satan. The human soul is a complex composition of sinful feelings, moods, thoughts, lies, etc. which Jesus had to experience and conquer.  (see the 17 listed below)

Why did Jesus deliberately bear such horror?  Because His HEART  is not like ours. Sin has rendered our heart “more deceitful than all things” (Jer.17:9). His heart is essentially full of pure mercy. This love calculated the cost and Jesus was willing to enter into this Mediation and sacrifice everything of Himself  for us. This Man Who Changed The World does so out of HIS NEW HEAVENLY LOVE. The entire process of salvation, every minute of every day, is about winning us through resurrection love. Every wicked sinner can know  THE FATHERS ULTIMATE LOVE: His only Son Jesus.

We connect with this gift by faith. But this faith is not passive. It is super-charged by the experience of this divine love.  It is born from above out of contemplating the demonstration of Gods’ love in the crucifixion of Jesus.

In the story of  Abraham and Isaac God gave a “full-length feature movie” on earth to prepare mankind for the heavenly revelation of sacrificial love. The Father manifested HIS NEW LOVE to change the world. His heart is the opposite of our selfish heart.  The crux of God’s heart is seen in the sacrifice of one’s own life; as Jesus displayed for all the world to see.

God’s plan is not to change  the economic, educational, military or prison systems but the “system” of our soul. When Jesus returned to heaven he left the world exactly the same as it was when He was first born in the manger. But for the first time there were  men and women on earth who were now willing to sacrifice themselves for others.  This sacrificial love spread throughout the world. Even to fill  a bum body named Michael with Jesus. The Father frees us from ourselves; by the inner work of what Jesus manifested. This is how your world can be changed.

Jesus promised He would not leave us as orphans. He began a new family.  The Holy Spirit would give us the mighty works Jesus won through the cross. Jesus  provided His body as the shared means to put His death and resurrection in us.

“For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart…Christ in you the hope of glory” (Heb.4:12/Col.1:27/Jn.1:1,12-14).

Salvation comes within our body to perform  the interior work Jesus accomplished in the human soul. By His saving work we become “set apart” (Agios); “divided” so as to “fellowship” with Christ in the very work He did for us on earth.  By fellowship in the Spirit we become transformed by rebirth into truth and transparency from lies, exaggeration and presumption. He frees us from the sins of self-pity etc. If God can put His Spirit in a bum body like me He can do it for anybody. Death is at my back whispering my time is short but I rejoice.

My heart is united with His death and resurrection I am secure in eternity. I have gone from stress to peace and comfort, from living for ‘the big ME’ to compassion for others. This is called sanctification. It is a fruit of justification by faith. I no longer have to strive to be right. He changes me as I ponder His heavenly love revealed in the crucifixion.

Jesus is the Master of my soul. Think of all the gym equipment that focuses on specific body parts. Likewise, in regards to all the specifics areas of sin and struggles, Jesus is there as The  Instructor (Intercessor/Mediator). He took on all our sin (Vicarious Atonement) and teaches us how to “work out” and lift us above sinful memories, feelings, hurts, imaginations, etc. and build His Word into our consciousness. This is a salvation that never takes place by a “sinner’s prayer” but only in the living Jesus.

Jesus is the Mediator and Intercessor (see 17 things below). So He is at work in me “to do and will His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13). “I do not have a High Priest Who cannot sympathize with my weaknesses, but One Who has been tempted in all things AS I AM, yet without sin” (Heb.4:15). I am being transformed from my body of fear and condemnation into His risen compassion of joy and wisdom. It was in His excruciating experiences of human suffering that this “Man Who Changed the World”  touched every aspect of our soulish and bodily infirmities (Jn.12:25). There is no fear in the love of God because every aspect of my consciousness of Him within me is His sacrificial love to the Father.

When Jesus shouted out to the crowds it was about the “living waters” of this profound provision of all His “theological” (I hate that word) accomplishments to give us (Jn.7:37) (see below) . Our hearts can be won back from Satans’ impact. Sheer genius. So what I’m saying is that salvation is not at a theoretical mind play of trying to emulate ideas and concepts. Salvation is a REAL HEART CHANGE from ‘being in the flesh’ to ‘being in the spirit’ (Spirit-Jn.4:24) (Jn.3:3-8,6:63/1 Cor.2:11/15:45).

It is the proof that His cross is at work within you as you learn to apply  the things listed below (Jn.12:25/Rm.6:6). Paul says he is “found in Him” by a ‘participation’ in “the fellowship of His sufferings” in His death and resurrection (Phil. 3:9-10).

Jesus said to the Father “You have not desired sacrifice and offering (outward things of behavior), But you have prepared A BODY for Me” (Heb.10:5). If Jesus did not change the soul in the body we would still be living in the Old Testament existence. Jesus was tortured in body to the full extent of all the horrors of sin to meet any man in the horrors of his sin. He suffered the most of any man so bring total salvation to every man.

THE DEMONSTRATION OF GODS’ LOVE

The following are facts, and quotations,  in a summary of my research into historical documentation and medical journals. (References: Journal of the American Medical Association/Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine/An Appraisal of Evidence/The life of Flavius Josehpus/A Forensic Inquiry).

I would plead and beckon you to enter a deep, serious contemplation to envision the experience of the crucifixion. The Holy Spirit can right soften your heart and give you His light.

So imagine you’re living in ancient days. One day while at a market buying some bread, you hear and notice a large parade yelling and laughing over something you can’t quite make out. You walk over to see what’s going on. So there’s this pitiful guy falling all over the place stumbling down the street carrying a beam of wood over his shoulder. (The convict was forced to carry either the 100 lb. vertical or 300 lb. horizontal beam to the place of execution.) You think “Another criminal felon getting what he deserves.” Crucifixion was very common in those days. 

But there’s something in the air very distorted you just can’t put your finger on. This is the same man you heard days earlier shout out, in midst of a morning rush, that he’s going to change the world and is king. Well, he is wearing a crown, but the thorns are an obvious ridicule. Doesn’t much look like He’s changing the world but it’s sure changing him. Blood is pouring out of his back, and head. His entire body is covered with holes and deep scars. The crowd is quite vicious and mocking him with spit and hostile assault. You follow to see where this spectacle ends. In the distance, it seems obvious that a hill is awaiting  the felon to fulfill his dire sentence. The hill called Golgatha (place of skulls)  is strewn with crucified bodies. The soldiers often just left victims to rot because it was such work to bury each one. Many are dead and being eaten by wild dogs and birds. This is where the world decided to put the Son of God (Jn.15:25).

Maximum pain and excruciating agony were intrinsic to the design of a crucifixion so as to inflict a savage violence by a commander and soldiers. First, the condemned was stripped naked and scourged 40 times with a “scorpion” affixed with multiple metal tips to give a flesh-tearing “bite”. This would cause the person to lose a large amount of blood, and approach a state of shock. Historical documents affirm that in the case of Jesus a crown made with thorns was driven into his head.

During the death march, the prisoner, would be led through the most crowded streets^.  Upon arrival at the place of execution, selected to be especially public, the convict would be stripped of any remaining clothing, then nailed to the cross naked.

The body weight was upheld by the victims outstretched arms anchored by four 7 inch nails driven through the wrists and feet. Upon the cross being raised with ropes and dropped into the anchor hole, the nails would jerk into a position under the hand bones and the feet would bear the entire downward weight.

“The typical cause of death was asphyxiation as the condemned would suffer severe difficulty trying to inhale, due to hyper-collapse of the chest muscles and lungs. Natural instinct would repeatedly force the culprit to repeatedly pull himself up by the arms in order to breath, leading to exhaustion. When no longer able to lift himself, the condemned would die within a few minutes. This method was to achieve a prolonged torture. There is scholarly support also for heart failure or arrhythmia, hypovolemic shock-acidosis, dehydration, and pulmonary embolism. including sepsis following infection due to the wounds caused by the nails or by the scourging that preceded crucifixion, or from stabbing by the guards.”

The crucifixion was an execution that encompassed absolute humiliation, by making the condemned as vulnerable as possible. A sign was fastened to the cross to notify onlookers of the person’s name and claims as they hung on the cross, further maximizing the public humiliation^.  Jesus did this fully cognizant of what would be involved and DID IT FOR YOU! For all your sin past, present and future. This is His love for you.  What was for generations and throughout many cultures  a very common death sentence the crucifixion became notable from Jesus.  The plan of God?!  This is love of God for you and I. Not what we deserve.

The life and death of Jesus is not up to any man to interpret according to his own whims. There is only one clear revelation of God’s Word. It is not a generational rumor or medieval folklore but a historical fact documented by even unbelieving scholars like Josephus. The Man Who Changed The World crawled repeatedly on all fours to his own torture.

The fact is Jesus is the only One Who fulfilled every divine requirement by God for a man to be reinstated into fellowship after the sin of Adam and Eve separated man from God. Salvation does not occur by repeating the ten  words of the man-invented “sinners prayer”. Nonsense. Diabolical. The modern day prayer formula is an outrage to the excruciating price of agony Jesus endured. Our Adam-nature must be broken and cleansed of sin to be reconciled to a holy God.  It is not a personal subjective option. The fallen soul is the same generic evil entity in all men and thus requires the same exact work by the Holy Spirit to “cover” sin and impart a new born again spirit. The commonality of the human soul is clearly seen in every institution of men from the military, to education, etc. as even advertisers base all their endeavors on the predictability of humanity. So Jesus could bear the exact same body as all men and by His death and resurrection provide the essential needs for salvation.

These are the phenomenal endeavors. Jesus is like the ultimate “Marvel Super Hero”. He is the “Man of Steel” super hero “Thor w/ hammer” accomplished on earth so that a sinful man could be reconciled back to our Creator God.  Jesus had to fulfill each one of these requirements  in his life and on the cross. It is in personal fellowship with the living Jesus that we become recipients of and participate in these spiritual realities.

Theological Terminology for what Jesus accomplished on the battlefield in His body. All these works are reckoned by the Holy Spirit in return for individual faith.

• 1) SUBSTITUTION -Jesus put Himself in our place to bear the wrath we deserve
• 2) IMPUTATION – the Father put our sin on His Son
• 3) MEDIATION – What Jesus was doing on earth between His Father and man
• 4) ATONEMENT – He fulfilled the required of O.T. blood sacrifice 
• 5) PROPITIATION is the soothing impact His death totally calmed the wrath of God
• 6) INTERCESSION as the required prayer to win the Father’s understanding of our hopeless plight
• 7) VICARIOUS proxy- indirectly  
• 8) EXPIATION- restitution- reparation -to extinguish effects of guilt  
• 9) RECONCILIATION – reunification
• 10) APPEASEMENT – peace offering
• 11) EXONERATION – setting free from a wrong doing 
• 12) REDEMPTION – turning a bad event into good outcome
• 13) SALVATION – deliverance
• 14) SANCTIFICATION – to make holy
• 15) JUSTIFICATION – the composite of all these works and the grounds for salvation
• 16) HOLINESS- the state of being fitting for God’s fellowship
• 17) RIGHTEOUSNESS – the gift of perfection reckoned in return for faith

REAL CHANGE

The expression “change the world” is common. They say people like Einstein changed the world because they implemented a superior range of “advancements” from the cave man days. Can’t deny that.

We often hear college students boast of how they are going to “change the world” and “make the world a better place”. My response “It is you who must be changed”.  Why invest yourself in this world? It is  like putting wall paper and new carpeting in a condemned building (this world)  about to be destroyed. But the real changing of the world in every body in which Jesus lives today.

The streets, prisons, hospitals overflow with broken souls in desperate need of love and care that any student, rich man or common laborer could expend even one ounce of sacrificial love but only Jesus can change  the inner world of selfish men.  The world of men is set in a destiny of death and destruction (1 John 2:15ff/Rm.6:23).  Jesus says, “The world hates Me without cause” and “He who makes himself a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (Jn.15:25/James 4:4).

You CAN change a man’s world with the love of Jesus in your heart. We are reaching multitudes. The photograph above is my son Joshua bringing Gods’ love with broken words to broken men. Paul says “I have been crucified with Christ…” (Gal.2:20). We lose our lives to participate in His working within. The next time you wonder where is God’s love for you, it was demonstrated in such a far-reaching manner it only needed to be done one time in all history (Rm.5:8).

As we work in hundreds of prisons we always come back to working harder with industrial effort of heart and mind to find new ways to express God’s love to these who suffer so greatly. In the hardest of hearts these broken souls have only one hope to change their world; the path of salvation. It is for me, for you, for  us to love them, beyond our own limitations,  so that our love might soften them to Him; because “with the heart a man believes” (Rm.10:10). If the heart is ruined so are the chances. It can be changed.

A person who is hit by trauma can become shut down. The target, therefore, in order for him to change, is the heart. And the weapon to hit the target is love. It is the only power able to soften the heart. The Man Who Changed The World created this potential for change. The Holy Spirit is the only hope to bring supernatural change. If Jesus had not done what He did, long ago,  there would no such hope for change today. The next time you see someone wearing a cross ask them if they know it’s a torture symbol of love.

Try to picture a desert scene with a tiny sprout of a plant sprouting out of the sand: “For He grew up before Him (the Father) like a tender shoot, And like a root out of dry ground (the world)” (Is.53).  There is no crowd or trumpet sound, no awe or  celebration, when Jesus comes to you. Salvation is between you and Him. Today, as back then, His offer to change you is ONE HOPE FOR GOD’S PERSONAL LOVE

So because of His love in us, my family and I work by His supernatural force to give men the only hope for their world to change. Like Jesus, Stephen was being stoned to death, yet cried out “Do not hold this sin against them”.   So we must change to do everything we can to love the unloved and unlovable. I have no problem yielding to  ongoing change because it shows Jesus at work in me and  gives glory to God and hope to others. It’s not that I was wrong and now I’m right. It’s that I am always wrong because of sin and will never be right according my flesh. Paul says “I AM” the chief sinner and “Wicked man that I AM”.  It’s never about us but Him in us.  As far as it depends on me I will help anyone who asks for my help (Jn.6:37). Jesus is soon to return. Please, open your heart to His love.