LRC, Houston - the weekends-free church in Houston, Texas

No amount of believing that something is true can actually make it so. What we need to concentrate on are those foundational truths that are obviously the intent of God towards all. Here are four to begin. Every man is related to God as creature to Creator. We are ALL related to God as objects of His love. We are agents of God’s will, however slight or great that might be. And, we are related to God through prayer (or meditation-contemplation). And we have acquired that position thanks to the personhood of Jesus. Man was made for God and Jesus accepted that offer, fully! It is in God that man finds his fulfillment and completion. Isn’t that exactly what Jesus did?

The divinity of Christ is so much bigger than an historical fact; it is a “religious experience” and an act of faith operating upon those historical facts. What is focused, centered, and constant in Jesus is diffused, scattered, and sporadic in you and I; but, there nonetheless! Jesus shows us how dependent we should be on the living God. God made man “towards him” as St. Augustine said. Anything short of communion with God will leave a hole in our soul. And, nothing will finally satisfy man but fellowship with God.

Nothing!

Norman Pittenger reminded us (can you believe this guy wrote 90 books?) of the role of the Holy Spirit in the intentions of God when He said, “The Spirit works in men not to destroy their human capacities and their God-given insight into truth, but to confirm and to strengthen, to enlighten and inform, to correct and enlarge those capacities and that insight.” I do not believe it was the “intention” of God that we take the burden upon ourselves to “get people saved”. Surely we need to be available to be used as whatever vessel God so chooses.

But, using the words of William Porcher DuBose (1836-1918) an American priest and theologian in the Protestant Episcopal Church, “We think that unless we can force our hearers to accept the precise language which seems to us, or which has seemed even to the church itself in it’s official capacity, to be correct, then we have not really managed to “convert” them.

It’s the Spirit!

And, it’s God operating IN Jesus, the Christ! God is seeking for others who can look “somewhat” like Jesus, the Christ who possessed His most intimate self-expression. And while I can’t see us (you and I) ever attaining to the level Jesus did, it’s God’s intention that we at least give that an honest effort. I’m not saying we can’t. I’m simply saying few even know that is what God’s intention is in the first place.

The synoptic gospels particularly paint a picture of Jesus (the man) alive in human characteristics, deep in His Jewish historical culture, always praying to the Father and declaring Himself ignorant on the will of God in particular matters. He was a man among men (and women) as you and I; however, He became so much more, and encouraged us that we could do even better than He!

How? I have not a clue. But if Jesus said it, it must be the intention of God!

Let’s give it a shot!