Teaching, TravelsFebruary 04, 2025

The Purpose In Our Time

 

Out of dust we were created and to dust we shall return. I was 25 a few days ago, then 50 and today zap on my way back to dust. But I await my spirit entering where I belong. In this TIME in between dust to dust we are called by our Father  to find, live and give show the purpose of Christ back to the Father.

The purpose of Christ in coming to earth was to give us a chance at eternal life. Life finds meaning only in the depth of this gift of love we receive from the living Christ. If what you live is The Law then you must know that misery  is not your purpose. God sent His Son out of the glory of eternity to enter our realm of TIME so we could then join to Him in this TIME  to live in His “time” to come of eternity. Jesus says “My words are spirit and life” (Jn.6:63).

We we bring our broken, shattered tragedy and trauma  to Him so we can be born again into this eternal “time” beyond human TIME. This is the only way to  “see” and live His purpose (Jn.3:3-8). Otherwise we live by obligation, hit and miss, the Law. Jesus there is only one thing that proves we have His life – His love (Jn.15:13/13:35). Can’t get any clearer than this. It don’t matter how many times you “pray a sinners prayer” or do good works if you do not walk in His love you do not walk in Him (1 Jn.4:7-8).

Let’s be honest. The idea of compassion is maybe a notch above  going out of your way to be “nice”. Right? Is it basically a smile and doing some good deeds? Is there any sense of catharsis and healing to your touch of others? I mean if love is the first stage of laying down our lives and care is the second stage how much greater is compassion?

Who thinks of profound sacrifice and creativity in an expansive personal effort to help and care for the unlovable and forgotten? What if God searches for someone to give His compassion but you are too busy doing your ‘own thing’ ?  This is your TIME to change, learn and to receive the Spirit of the living Jesus. We often read Bible verses and think that it is in these letters on pages that we find revelation. The living revelation of  the Word of God is in the  dispense of the Presence of the Father that Jesus offers.

In every N.T. encounter Jesus was present in His Fathers Presence. Men received not mere words, doctrines or ideas but the loving divine Presence of the Fathers care for them as an individual. They touched God in touching Jesus. This is our goal, to rethink compassion.  We too can carry and dispense His Presence. I don’t mean to sound “out there” because actually all we are aware of is our own selfishness. As we are broken so are we brought to nothing and in this nothingness we believe and thus united in the Vine to become branches that flow with His love. There can be no sin that can keep us from Him or all His blood and agony on the cross was in vain and it was not.

One of my daughters, Ruth,  sent this picture to me (above) for my 71st birthday. (Ow. It hurts to even say that number.) It made me think of two words; accountability and privilege. How serious are we about our own willingness to take our TIME as our one and only opportunity on earth? What is the real value of our life? How much TIME are we willing to invest and expand in our individual capacity to show the love of God to this world? A statement I often hear, sometimes by mere attitude,  is “Oh. I’m already ‘there’. I already know all that”. Ugh. They drank the poison. The kiss of death. When any man can say he’s arrived at knowing an eternal God I pity his end.

The King of Compassion opened up the portal to eternal resources through His death and resurrection. Every disciple is an ever growing heart from ‘glory to glory’. Every week, every day, every hour and minute I am learning what I didn’t know. It is not frustrating but wonderful. Yet we can  carry a unique designation in our  compassion. But of course we must be in the Vine. Come on, man. Is it more important for people to know that you are “righteous” giving others out of your righteousness or learn how dispense His on the moment living compassion?

Never underestimate God’s love for you, your worth, potential  your identify in the love God. When you realize how He sees you then you can convey how He sees them. All by the faith of a mustard seed. The joy of seeing yourself in God’s love starts with a budge and generates the energy of love that you receive, then give. I don’t walk in God but by faith in God. I have no mystical experience but same ways all men learn when they start to discover the ways of faith. The “mechanics” of faith necessitate the closeness of God mindful of the manifold ways of His love.

THE CARDINAL PROCESS

So I was sitting in my semi-truck when a bright red cardinal started flying into the outside window next to me. Bam. Crash. Wham. Poor little guy. (I feel like that sometimes). Sarah was able to take a picture of it and find this still shot below. I did some research on it.

They are trying to process their reflection and think it is another bird. It hit me that this is like  “seeing” our reflection in the love God. I imagine Abraham of old sitting at his nomad campfire. He was face to Face with God. In that moment of Genesis 15:6 Abraham saw himself to be a man who loved His creator by one thing: faith. We tend to think of God’s love as conditional. If we are “good” then He loves us. If we are bad He does not love us. But “God SO LOVES THE WORLD” He gave His Son. If He only loved us when we are good then He never really loved the world because it has always been evil. The entire world, all wicked mean. It”s not that He loves the wicked, obviously, but He loves men who happen to be wicked. He loves everyone as you are, where you are. God so loves the world. When you see your yourself in the love of God you catch a glimpse or your own beauty in Him. So when we “see” our reflection as He sees us in His Son it is this love that we find that motivates us to give this freely to the world as He does.

What significance does our life really have in the fast-paced measure of TIME on earth? The actual substance of eternal life is meant to pass through us to others as we live in the love of the living Jesus. No greater joy. Even Jesus says giving eternal life is more filling than any meal a starving person could eat (Jn4

To think our lives are seen and measured by the Spirit of God and our quality of love is a beautiful thing. It requires no degree, except in reality. I stand in humble awe of what I know God alone has done and is doing,  hoping others will see and understand my life is only but a witness and testimony to the living Lord Jesus.

I pray my TIME spent may motivate others to realize life is not about our meager life but the conscious awareness of purpose we are granted in the knowledge of God Who implants in our heart the purpose of redemption in Christ that He yearns for anyone, no matter how weak, how great of failure, how wicked or nothing, might discover.

It is not flesh and blood but the power of the Spirit of God within our “earthen vessel” that the world is able to be touched by the living Savior. I have so many vivid memories of God’s hand in my life over TIME.  What is the purpose of our TIME? So limited, in light of eternity,  but in every moment we never think it will come to an end. Time has a power that keeps our focus on the here and now. So how is that we can grasp an accurate gage on our purpose in TIME?

The purpose we pursue is determined by the reality, not in our words, but what is within us that propels us to live. I reflect back on my time gone by as little child, teenager,  young adult and so many years in travels throughout 60 countries. In them I see the purpose of God teaching, leading, protecting and opening up countless for us to bring, not a generic love, but a depth of personal touch. I look back and see myself in HIs love. Hear this in His righteous but I love whom I see Him recreating me to be. Jesus promised if lose our life we shall find it (Jn.12:24-25). I remember reading it so long ago and sensing it as far more than letters on a page. It is the portal. It is the cross. It is united to Him to see who we are meant to become (Rm.6:6).

Who am I to deserve such favor? I entered a destiny found as I contemplated the life of Jesus as my mirror to see beyond my present into my eternal life.  I made a “deal” with God many years that I would abandon my “life of crime” and pursue Him if He would show Himself to me. Over several years I desperately sought His Spirit. Not having a clue to what this meant. I made All-City wrestling and fullback in Grand Rapids, Michigan and ultimately earned a full-ride scholarship to Central Michigan University.

These awards got my attention because in reality I never saw myself as an elite athlete but just average. God will use anything in your life to get your attention because His love is so great for you. Any accomplishments were not really a matter of my talent but of my Viking-like will of a savage which I then switched to find and ultimately stand for Jesus in this wicked desperate world. All things work together, and God uses all things,  to lead us to see ourselves in Him if indeed we are of such a heart to seek Him.

I have spent tens of thousands of hours in innumerable places contemplating how to reach this world with Jesus. Every time it comes down to my death and obedience to Him. The means is always faith. . How is it that we can reach into another persons shattered life and he can sense not his own wicked heart,  not be threatened or pressured but warmed, held and see himself as he never did before in the compassion of the living Jesus?

TO BE CONTINUED…..