Truth or Fiction: A Matter of Motivation

Recently, I heard a message by the Rev. Stewart Briscoe, in which he used an event in his early life as an illustration. Years ago, it seems, he and his wife were traveling through South Africa on a preaching tour. The woman leading them asked if they wanted to see the world's largest man-made hole. Not even knowing such an attraction existed in the area, they agreed—just out of curiosity.

Sure enough—when they arrived, they were duly impressed. It was at least a mile in circumference and over a 120 feet deep. They were told that it didn't even start out as a hole—in fact, it was a substantial hill. When the pastor and his wife asked how it ever came to be, their guide told them the story. It all started with a couple of young boys with their shovels. As they dug, one of the youngsters uncovered a rather unusual rock. You see, this rock was rather sparkling on the one end. Yes, diamonds—the diamonds of South Africa! All it took to dig that hole—by hand—was motivation, and they certainly had that!

Now motivation comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes, colors and textures. One great motivation in the world today is greed—and not just for the criminal and his get-rich-quick-schemes and scams. No, throughout the business psyche of our society, greed and getting ahead is often the motivational force. But in the Christian mindset, it is to be an entirely different thing. As the world scrambles after precious jewels and gems, wealth and recognition of all kinds, the true Christian recognizes Jesus as the greatest prize of all. Matthew 13: 45-46 records Jesus saying, "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it." Jesus, the living Word of God, is that pearl of great price—nothing is more valuable and worthy of possessing. A little later, the disciples were asked, "...But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." (16:15-16) Following this great declaration, we are told—"From that time forth began Jesus to show unto His disciples, how that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day." (vs. 21)

Elsewhere, it says that Jesus had set His face like flint towards the Cross—very purposed, very determined, very motivated. Yes, but motivated by love, not greed, for that is the heart of God! And, Praise God—Jesus was and is God! Oh sure, lots of people would argue with that, but that is because they don't want to come under His authority. Pride and haughtiness get in the way, and people demand their own interpretations. Perhaps I can illustrate this with something that was recently in the national media. A few weeks ago, there was much ado over Dan Brown coming out with a new book. I don't have any idea what it is about, or even its title—I couldn't care less. As far as I'm concerned, it is much ado about nothing!

You see, the world thinks much of him because of his book back in 2003—The DaVinci Code. It sold millions of copies, was translated into dozens of languages, and it made its author a multi-millioniare. The New York Times described it as a, "riddle-filled, code-breaking, exhilarating, brainy thriller." Other reviews were much less flattering— "pretentious, posturing, self-serving, self-congratulatory, condescending, glib, illogical, superficial, and deviant." From what I know, I would tend to agree with the latter. Oh, there might be some truth in some of the subject matter and even the plot, but I couldn't care less about any of that. I take issue with its assertions concerning my Jesus—heavy duty issues, in fact, it's blasphemy. The book suggests that the gospel accounts of Jesus that we have today are not the originals. Supposedly, the stories we have of Jesus, revealing both His humanity and His divinity today, are not what God gave. Hogwash! There is absolutely no evidence for such a ridiculous assertion. There was never an earlier form of Christianity—Jesus Himself made it very clear who He was, but people are just too proud to come under His authority. Specifically, the DaVinci Code manufactures a Jesus who was married to Mary Magdalene, and the two of them had a daughter named Sarah. And if that doesn't rewrite the gospel accounts, supposedly their descendants became the kings of France. Absurd!!!

What a fanciful fairy tale! Not only that, the Holy Grail, usually thought to be the chalice Jesus used in the Upper Room, is now—believe it or not— identified as the womb of Mary. Sick! Oh, many could just write it all off as fiction, but the problem with that is that many people are buying into it. Dan Brown, at his own web site states that it is, "my belief that the theories discussed by these characters (in my book) may have merit." He does not actually state that they are accurate or true, but he disagrees with those who come against them. He describes himself as a Christian, but distinguishes himself from those who "accept the Bible as absolute historical fact." He says, "We're each following our own path of enlightenment. I consider myself a student of many religions." And that is supposed to be Christianity?

Truth or fiction? What is going to motivate you? How precious is the true Jesus to you? Are you going to live by His Holy Word, or by the world's fiction? Your answers will very much depend on what you know to be truth or fiction. T.T. Lynch shares the famous story about the pastor who asked David Garrick why it was that the words of an actor are considered more powerful than the spoken word from the pulpit. The actor replied, "Ah, my dear sir, You of the pulpit often speak truth as if it were fiction, but we of the stage speak fiction as if it were truth." That fear that causes this wimpy stand for the truth actually stems out of pride and haughtiness. The seed, however, that all of this germinates from is a refusal to die to self and live for God. Martin Luther, the eminent reformer was adamant about this—"Pride is really the haughtiness of Satan against the name and word of God. People who claim to be wise in matters of faith pompously exalt themselves, regarding God Himself as nothing, and all others, in comparison to themselves, as mere fools. When this happens, there is no humility and no fear of God. In fact, they are destitute. Such people are enemies of God and must be overthrown, for they have excluded themselves from the Kingdom and grace of God."

I think G. Campbell Morgan, the great preacher, hit the nail right on the head—"I believe one of the reasons for the condition of the Church is the aloofness of Christians from sinning men and women. We still build our sanctuaries the way we want to, set up our standards the way we want to, and make our arrangements the way we want to, and say to the sinning ones: 'If you come to us, we will help you.'" But I ask you, what power will there be in that—we make up what is truth and what is fiction, and then think somehow that is going to present a good direction for others to follow—"If you come to us, we will help you." Jesus already laid out the truth—go to Jerusalem, suffer many indignities from those that call themselves religious, but are far from being truly spiritual, and die to self with the glorious result of being raised to new life—the resurrected life of Jesus!

Antony Flew, a strong 20^th Century advocate of atheism, argued that one should presuppose atheism until empirical evidence of God surfaced. He signed the Humanist Manifesto in 2003, but the next year, he claimed to have changed his mind—now he believed in God! And the world was in a stir—the atheist is now a Christian! No, he was a deist, claiming to now believe in the god of Aristotle—no mention of Jesus whatsoever, and without the true Jesus, there is no salvation! Charles Darwin, tragically influencing untold millions to NOT believe in God through his blasphemous evolution, before his death, admitted he was wrong. Well, that's good, but not enough—without the true Jesus, there is no salvation! Dr. Morgan made another interesting related point—"People today never seem to think that passionate and sacrificial devotion suggests madness in any realm except the spiritual. No one suggests the athlete, who gives himself totally to his sport and sacrifices all for the sake of physical prowess, is beside himself. No one imagines that the businessman, who is devoted to amassing wealth that he even shortens his life through the stress of it, is beside himself. No, that suggestion is retained only for those whose service for the souls of men and women is sacrificial. Let all such servants be comforted. They are in a holy comradeship!" Just watch that you don't end up digging your own hole—your way. Seek the resurrected Lord, for He is truly the Pearl of Great Price—what a motivation!!!

One Thing: The Thread that Holds Us

A Danish philosopher tells the story of a spider that lowered a single strand from the top rafter of an old barn and began to weave his web. Days, weeks, and months went by, and the web grew and grew. Its elaborate maze provided the spider with everything he needed—flies, mosquitoes, and many other small insects. The web became larger and larger, until it was the envy of all of the other barn spiders.

One day, as this very industrious spider was traveling across his magnificent web, he noticed a single strand going up into the darkness of the rafters. "I wonder why this is here," he thought, "it doesn't really serve to catch me any dinner." And with that, the spider climbed as high as he could and severed the single strand. When he did, the entire web slowly began to tumble to the floor of the barn, taking the spider down with it. Yes, what a short-sighted spider, for he failed to remember how that strand had been the beginning of everything—in a sense, the only thing—the very thread that held him up!

Every man, woman, or child, who has clipped the strand that unites us with God, endeavoring to find meaning, satisfaction, and sense in life, has been tremendously disappointed in the end. Yes, even tragically ruined in the process! Edwin Young once wrote, "There is simply no coherence in a life lived out on our own terms, with no reference to the Divine." The apostle Paul wrote that Jesus Christ was before all things, and that in Him all things held together. In Paul's letter to the Colossian church we find that it was the Christ who was involved in the work of creation, and He is also the Head of the Church. Praise God—He is the first-born from the dead, and it is in Him that all of the fullness of God dwells. When we try to sever our lives from that sustaining thread—that "scarlet cord," which is symbolic of the streaming blood of Jesus Christ—everything falls apart! This "scarlet thread" is first pictured at the fall of Jericho in Joshua 6. Rahab, who helped the spies of Israel, was to place such a cord in her window in the wall, marking the place of salvation for her and her family. It was the "one thing" that would protect her. The theologian, Søren Kierkegaard, once wrote a book entitled, "The Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing." He contended that a pure heart was a heart with a singular focus, which, by the way, was not a thought original to him.

Paul was a man with a laser-like focus on one thing. In Philippians 3, we read, "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him...Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Above all things, he wanted to experientially know Jesus Christ, and that was his entire focus. He was a very one-dimensional man, and as much as this world thinks that that is a bad thing, it is the best thing! But guess what? Even Paul was not the first one to have such a focus.

Look at Jesus! In Mark 10, we find a rich young ruler seeking Jesus, asking what else he needed to do to gain heaven. This was the man's first problem—his focus was on doing, that is, earning his own salvation.

When he called Jesus a "good teacher," the Lord made it clear that none but God was truly good, intimating, of course, that He—Jesus—was God in the flesh! When Jesus listed off several commandments for him to obey, the ruler made it clear that he had—even from his childhood—been there, done that—as they say. That is when it happened—"Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go they way, sell whatsover thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the Cross, and follow me." (vs.21) In His mercy, Jesus just cut to the chase and made it clear that the man was "hung up" on his stuff. If you let anything become more important to you than the resurrected life of Jesus working in you—through the Body of Christ—then there is indeed a problem!

Do you remember the time that Jesus was in Bethany with His good friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and a situation arose? Yes, Mary was spending a good deal of time focused on Jesus, while sitting at His feet, listening to His every word, when her sister, Martha, was getting all stressed out with all of the details of the meal preparation. When the latter tried to get Jesus to reprimand the former, Jesus said, "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:41-42) Many things vs. the one thing! Oh, certainly it is not wrong to prepare a meal for a guest, but when Jesus is no longer THE beloved guest in that house, there is a problem. In John 9, we find the story of Jesus healing the man that had been born blind—he had never seen before! But now he could, and the Pharisees were in an uproar over this Sabbath day healing. When they tried to intimidate the man into declaring that Jesus was a sinner, and, therefore, not a good man, the formerly blind man replied, "Whether He be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." (vs.25) This Jesus was not only a good man, but God incarnate!

We especially see this need to discern between "many things" and the "one thing" as we make our way deeper and deeper into this New Year of 2013. Every day brings more busyness, and with that, more and more self-imposed responsibility. Our lives get all "stuffed up" with "stuff." So many things that the one thing that is really important, gets shoved aside. More and more, the one thing—Jesus—gets put off to the back burner, so to speak, and the focus becomes all about us and our plans. It is kind of like the spider snipping off that single strand—we forget just how crucial an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ really is—and SNIP—as Pastor Young put it, "...there is simply no coherence in a life lived out on our own terms..." The secular humanists tell us that we are moving toward our ultimate potential, and that it is just a matter of time before we make right all that has been wrong. You have got to be kidding—and that they expect to do without the Cross? The "New Agers" demand that we leave true Christianity behind and replace it with our own understanding, which, they say, will usher in a "new age," where we become our own gods. Kind of handy, isn't it? No authority but our own! Many of the prosperity preachers put forth something very similar, only they use the name of "Jesus" a lot more, which does fool a lot of people!

Well, BALONEY—I say, to all three, as well as to a whole myriad of other faulty belief systems. So many today want to make life be nothing but a dreamland—a series of re-runs played over and over again, and as long as the whole thing goes their way, then all is terrific. Praise God—that is not the way it works! God never meant for us to have a circular existence. From our beginning, recorded in Genesis, man was built for linear living. We were created to go somewhere—with purpose, and for the sake of reality—God's reality! Leon Uris wrote a history of Ireland called, "Trinity." At the conclusion, having looked at over hundreds of years of history, he states, "There is no future for Ireland, only the past happening over and over again." So is there no way out of this "re-run city?" Can we hope for new scenery for the journey? King Solomon, in the Book of Ecclesiastes, said many were living out a pointless existence—sin, confess; sin, confess; sin, confess—never actually ever being set-free from sin. God says life is full of purpose—just read 1 John 1! We were meant for linear living, but sin has lured many into a circular pattern—almost a mindless repetition of what has been before—from day to day, month to month, year to year. We are meant to live in relationship, but our sin has enticed us into hiding, isolation, and self-preservation. Praise God—Solomon's father, King David, saw it God's way, not man's way. In Psalm 27:4, he confidently states, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple." Quite simply, he is saying that he is demanding to truly know the real Jesus, abiding in His holy presence, and plowing through each day as it comes, and living—not just existing—but living in the glow of a spiritual breakthrough. Praise God—may your one thing this year be that scarlet thread that can hold you in these days, and throughout all of eternity. That scarlet thread is the sacrificial love of God!