To continue my previous thoughts on believing in Words, I want to you to recall the Bridle Cave tour I described.  Focus, if you would, on the tiny flame that suddenly lighted the entire room; pushing back the surrounding darkness that felt almost tangible.  How much faith does it take, according to Jesus, to remove a mountain?  Was Jesus telling His disciples that their faith was smaller than a mustard seed and that's why answers to prayers didn't work for them?  Of course not.  He was simply telling them that if faith could be measured, and it were the size of a tiny little mustard seed, that amount of faith could not only remove a sycamore tree but a mountain which then would be cast into the sea.  Faith has no size; it is a fixed value.  At the same time, there is a simple way of having more faith but that is an explanation for another time.  You don't even believe that faith is a fixed value yet and that it doesn't grow larger or smaller so I don't want to mix you up any more than I already have thus far.  If you'll keep reading, though, some of these theological interpretations of mine I have come to might just sound plausible some day.  Either that or you finally will confirm in your mind I'm crazy and don't know a thing about the Bible.  Shoot, you may even decide I'm not a born again Christian due to my beliefs.  I've been labeled a heretic and much worse before so don't let it bother you.

Going back to the match and the brilliant illumination it made in the blackness of the cave with the lights turned off, let me compare this with the following thoughts.

First, we had to shift into low gear, according to the warning sign at the top of the hill, before even getting to the bottom where the cave entrance was, that means slow down now; right now.  We, as Christians, have been taught, for the most part, to do the opposite, that is, speed up by gaining more faith and thereby gaining better traction in our relationship with the Lord.  I've heard preachers say the following:  "Catch on fire for the Lord and people will come just to watch you burn."  It's a cute saying and I like it but that's all it is; a saying.  Often the truth is, we are out running our headlights.  This means, of course, we drive faster than our headlights on our car can illuminate and tragedy is just around the corner.  Let me illustrate.

A friend of mine and I, back in the mid seventies, were traveling and preaching in churches across the country.  We were in our mid twenties.  Sometimes I spoke for one service, drove to another church, and preached in the afternoon.  Then Monday, my friend and I would jump in the car and drive to another church to speak on Wednesday evening services.  Other times we stayed and spoke nightly for 8 days in a row.  My friend was my song leader in the services besides being my driver.  Eventually, I began traveling alone by plane and Sandy often would go with me to sing and play the piano.  Even after our first child was born, we continued traveling together as a family.

One Sunday night, we finished a week long meeting, Sunday through Sunday, in a small mountain community in Northwest Wyoming.  We ate a snack with the pastor and his family in their home after the final service and for some reason, we just decided to jump in the car and drive the 8 or 9 hours back to Denver through the night.  As I said, this town was small, and was called Afton, Wyoming.  It is a mountains valley where some of the Mormons moved when the government said you could not have more than one wife.  Afton gets down to 50 below zero and many of the Mormons died that first winter.  The valley was named Star Valley which was short for Starvation valley since about half of the Mormons starved to death during the first harsh winter.  A Baptist friend of mine was pastoring a small church of about 30 born again Christians in this town and county of about 3,000 citizens.  Tall mountains surround the little town and there is one highway in and out of the valley.  My friend, since the road was empty, and it was in the middle of the night, drove sometimes over 90 miles an hour; slowing, of course, for curves.  As we drove in the darkness at this high rate of speed, keep in mind, this was before seatbelts became a law for every car, my friend said, "Phil, if we had to stop real sudden like, what would you do,  I told him I'd stick my legs and arms out in front of me but he said, "If I yell, I won't be kidding and you react that way immediately."  We talked for awhile as he drove and moments later, high up in the mountains, we swung around a bend in the road and hit a straightaway.  Suddenly, the car began to decelerate rapidly as the breaks locked up.  The vehicle drifted over to my side of the road as the tail end of the car began to slide; twisting us nearly broadside to the road.  Quicker than it can be told, the breaks came off, the steering wheel spun,and the car slowed even more.  Seconds passed when all of the sudden, my friend yelled at the top of his lungs, "We just almost creamed a cow!"  I calmly said, "What happen?"  He said, "When we came around that last bend, the road was straight and as I began to speed up, my lights illuminated a cow standing broadside to us, and right in the middle of the road.  I hit the breaks and we began to slide toward the edge of a 400 foot drop off.  So I swung the wheel back to center to stop the slide and as we slid passed the cow, she swished her tail and the end of her tail smacked my left headlight."  In short, if we had struck that cow going that fast, I wouldn't be writing this today because we would have collided with a 1200 pound bovine, she would have come over the hood and through the windshield, or alternatively the car would have gone over the side of the cliff.  Did we slow down, you may ask?  For about 5 minutes, until the adrenalin rush we both had experienced dissipated, and then we began to speed up again.  Needless to say, my friend became much more watchful.  How, and why did this happen?  First, we were driving too fast, secondly, it was too dark, and thirdly, my friend was out driving, or over driving, his headlights; he couldn't see far enough ahead for possible dangers.

Now, what does light and cows and cars and driving too fast have to do with anything.  Did you read the sign at the top of the hill and drop down into a lower gear like the sign told you to do as a Christian?  Instead, we, as Christians, let the circumstances ramp up our emotional response to an out of control situation or circumstance, and we take off in every direction at the same time.  Talk about being torn asunder.  Remember how the Old Testament records events of persons rending their clothes and casting dust into the air after receiving bad news?  Be truthful now.  Isn't that how we feel when circumstances beyond our control slam into our lives unexpectedly?  I am not suggesting we react uncontrollably when things happen but in light of believing in the Word, let me illustrate in another way that might give a better idea of what I am trying to say.

Many years ago, Sandy developed a growth on her arm.  It kept changing shape so she finally scheduled an appointment with a dermatologist to have it looked at.  I kept asking her if she wanted me to go but she said no.  I wanted to go because we were both thinking it could be cancerous but she still said she wanted to go without me.

A couple of days before her doctor's appointment, I was sitting in my office as she typed for her job in the other room.  It was about 9 PM at night.  I was letting some prayers, and Bible passages, slide through my thoughts when suddenly I heard the Lord say, "It will be cancerous but they will get it all the first time the growth is removed."  It was a strong and powerful awareness in my mind and thoughts and I immediately believed it would be just as Jesus spoke the truth about it.  No, I told no one of what I had heard from the Lord.  No, it wasn't due to a lack of faith or the inability to believe the truth; it just felt like something between me and the Lord at the time.  When she went to the dermatologist, he didn't like the looks of it and immediately prepared to remove the growth.  Later, more surgery was done on that part of her arm to make certain they got it all.  Days later, we went to a cancer specialist; an oncologist.  He shared with us various options but he said this, too.  "Sandy, the malignant melanoma growth was 30 millimeters deep under the skin but the followup surgical procedure we conducted confirmed we got all the cancer the first time the growth was removed.  However, we strongly recommend using interferon shots in the stomach, self administered three times a week, if the cancer is 31 millimeters in depth.  So it is up to you if you decide to use the shots or not.  I strongly recommend you take the treatment for a year just to be on the safe side."  He then proceeded to explain the negatives of not being treated with the interferon shots, how serious it could be, and the percentages of the cancer returning without treatment due to the depth of the cancerous growth on her arm.  It was like the room turned black as the cave I described earlier.  It felt as if I had just been run over by a truck.  I remember going home, it was a Wednesday night, and Sandy went to church and I stayed home; going outside with our dogs to think and to cry as I sat on our back step.  I couldn't understand how the doctor's words could be pounding me so viciously and especially since the Holy Spirit had told me they would get it all the first time which they in fact did.  The spiritual oppression of the words felt evil and I would have felt totally helpless except for the fact I tenaciously  held on to the words Jesus had spoken in my heart, "They will get it all the first time."

So far, all I have been trying to do is establish how powerful words are and especially spoken words.  Oh, sure, as I had been raised to pray, I could have said, "Lord, thy will be done."  When we say that, what we normally mean is, "Lord, thy will be done which probably mean's you won't."  Why do such thoughts come to our minds so suddenly, when unwanted and uncontrolled, circumstances that attempt to destroy what we say we really believe.  In the case just described, Jesus said one thing to me and the doctor said another; nearly opposite statements in my way of thinking.  At this point, some are saying, well, what you heard didn't come from the Bible; you just probably made it up in your head.  I didn't make it up in my head because what I heard came to pass exactly as spoken but if you prefer to think otherwise, your are obliged.  I chose the Words of God, spoken in my heart, heard in my thoughts, plus, I could show you a dozen passages of Scripture that back up what I heard was Biblically sound which refutes this "will of God theological fallacy," but we'd probably quibbled or the true Biblical interpretation, and application, of those verses.  So it still comes down to one thing; what do we believe, that is, what do we believe about God and His Word verses that of our own or spoken by others?

In my next post, I will focus more on what we believe, since as born again believers, faith is not the issue and I'll explain why.


Phil.
Living His Name
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