God or Everything Else? Part 3

Esther was an orphan Jewish girl in a foreign land. She was a minority on multiple counts. Firstly, her parents were gone. Secondly, she was a girl, a woman- which obviously had very insignificant place in a society dominated by men. Thirdly, she was an alien in a godless pagan land which did not worship Jehovah. On all counts her identity worked against her. What identity did a woman have in her days? And the identity she derived from her parents? Or what about her cultural heritage? Living in a pagan land probably made that distant, especially when she had to live in the palace of a pagan king and get used to the regimented lifestyle of those in his harem.

One thing that Esther did have was her cousin Mordecai who adopted her. From him, she maintained a connection with her cultural heritage but more importantly, it was from him that she learned the value of a relationship- that he would take it upon himself to raise her up, to mentor her, to father her despite the fact that she was an orphan.

When Esther was gathered into the royal harem, she had all the excuse to indulge in whatever she wanted. For one so insignificant, one so seemingly deprived of womanly adornment, she had all the excuse to bolster her identity with material possessions at the king's court. However, one interesting thing about her is that the Bible tells us that she asked for nothing else apart from what Hegai the Eunuch suggested! This was certainly unusual for surely her contemporaries would have asked for all manner of material possessions and adornments that they desired but Esther only asked for what Hegai suggested, because she knew that Hegai knew what the king desired.

Esther's identity was not measured by her outward appearance or material adornments but by the worth of her character. Esther means "I will be hidden" and her Jewish name Hadassah means "myrtle", a fragrant but bitter plant. Esther was hidden. She was not known for who she projected herself to be on the outside but rather for the fragrance of her character. More than the king's possessions, she knew that the far greater prize was the king himself. And more than her outward beauty, she knew that she herself was the king's prize. Her identity and worth was not founded upon what she could gain by being in the king's harem but on her favour and relationship with the king. It was this which elevated her at the highest seat of power that belonged to any woman in that vast land.

Reflecting on Esther's story, it makes me wonder how many times we base our indentity on our "everything else" except on our relationship with the King. Many times, our pursuit of material gain or career or academic excellence actually comes from a deep-seated insecurity which expresses itself in an attempt to envelop ourselves with an externally-determined identity. The fig leaves that Adam and Eve wore in the garden were a prototype of this other-clothing that is a counterfeit to the glory of God! Esther had far greater reason to be insecure of her identity or lack thereof but Mordecai taught her the value of relationship. Mordecai is symbollic of the Spirit of adoption/sonship (see Romans 8) that God has put into our hearts to bear the testimony that He is Father to us! Often the reason why we're not secure of our identity and therefore seek to adorn ourselves with external ornaments to bolster our sense of self-worth is because we have unfathered areas in our lives. This is an expression of the orphan spirit that many a times governs our thinking, But we have Abba now and Abba sees our deepest needs and provides for us- yes including our deep-seated mental and emotional needs!

The confidence of having a Father caused Esther not to put her sense of self-worth or security on her external possessions. Her worth was not founded upon external things. That is why, though having been placed at the high seat of authority in the land, she was willing to give it all up for a greater purpose. Esther said that if she her people were merely sold as slaves, it would not justify bothering the king. Power and possession didn't matter to her. More than that, she was the one who risked her life in intercession, telling Mordecai "If I perish, I perish." If we are defined by the "everything else", how then can we be capable of such nobility? The fact of the matter is that we cannot be counted worthy of such great authority unless we have the great inward quality and capacity to possess it- the great virtue of being able to relinquish. Esther's security was placed neither in titles nor possessions nor political power. We are likewise not defined by the "everything else" that we may try to adorn ourselves with but by the simple unconditional love of Abba Father. Truly those who are likewise secure in their identity in God and know how to relinquish lowly incomparable things will have such a capacity for great authority. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.

Pleasing the king meant more to Esther than the temporary possessions she might have obtained at the harem. And Esther got it right for having the king means having everything! Esther didn't ask for all kinds of things but only that which Hegai the eunuch suggested. She only allowed herself to have only what was necessary to please the king. And so concerning our lives, is our pursuit for the King and for His pleasure? Instead of even the blessings we may receive in that relationship? Are we satisfied with only what is enough, with only what is necessary to grow in our relationship with Him? Or do we find ourselves indulging in many things that don't satisfy? (TV, entertainment, worldly pleasures, etc..) More than that, are we willing to reliquish even our legitimate claim to all these things in order to gain that which is truly valuable? In order to gain Christ who is altogether worthy? Because the value of something is altogether dependent on our pursuit of it!

In examining again the answer to our question- Who has more? Someone who only has God or someone who has God and everything else, I leave a famous quote from Jim Elliot: He is no fool to give what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

God or Everything Else? Part 2

So what does someone who is experiencing the fullness of life look like? My musings take me to the early church in the book of Acts. Why is it that their "church" was far better than ours? Why is it that their fellowship is better than ours? Why is it that the fruit of their evangelism is greater? Why is it that their baptism of the Holy Spirit seems to be more than what we have today? Haven't we received the same Spirit they received? Don't we serve the same Lord? If our lives are to conform to Biblical standards, how come our idea of "church" is far less than what they experienced in the book of Acts? Didn't God promise more for us living in the last days? Didn't Jesus say that greater works shall we do? Didn't the God say that He'll give us the former and the latter rain together? (The book of Acts is like the former rain, the autum rain, to prepare the ground for sowing but the last day church is to move in the latter rain, the spring rain which is many times greater than the autum rain and is meant to bring the harvest to maturity or fullness) Our lives currently don't even conform to the early Biblical prototype, how much more do we need to press in for the greater measure!

Why is it that our evangelism today is peppered with many methods and furnishings that the early church didn't have but yet not yielding the same or greater results? Yes, there are those occassional souls that do get saved but that's nowhere near the thousands that the early church could muster in a single sermon, not forgetting the number added to them on a daily basis. They did not have technology that we do, they did not have charismatic preaching (Peter admonished them for crucifying Jesus!), they did not have the skits, the mimes, the dramas, the dances, the fancy electric guitar riffs, the hip and happening stage lights, etc... But why is it that they can accomplish more than we can today and change the world around them, without all the facy methods and gadgetry we have today?
Why is it that we need to entertain our congregations and our youth with facy programmes and activities and bow down to their sensual cravings for church culture? The earlly church prospered with the Spirit and the Word, with true fellowship and by carrying the cross and having a vibrant personal walk with Jesus. Our contemporary church has that... and "everything else" (the lights and fancy programmes, etc...) Could it be that the "everything else" that we have nowadays (in the name of being "culturally relevant") prevent us from living and experiencing the fullness of life that comes by being satisfied with having God alone??

Consider this- they experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit which enabled them not just to speak in tongues but also to prophesy, work miracles, testify boldly even to the point of suffering and death, live a transformed life which is an antithesis to the worldly secular order, etc... Don't we also have the baptism of the Holy Spirit? But why has His function been confined only to speaking in tongues in today's pentecostal churches? Of course we also place an emphasis on spiritual gifts which do indeed operate but how come we don't do so in the same dynamic quality that the early church operated in? Don't we all remember the Corinthian church, the immature church with lotsa problems, they operated in spiritual gifts too rite? And even in their immaturity, the dynamicity of their operation seems to be far greater than the average present-day charismatic church...

One could not help but sigh...

Let's talk about the early church selling their possessions so that the money might be given to the poor. Isn't this an antithesis to the worldly order? And isn't this an antithesis to the popular prosperity message that is being preached today? I have no problems with God prospering the believer but I have problems with the believer pursuing prosperity or pursuing God for that perverted idolatrous end! The early church delighted in selling their possessions for the poor but it seems that the present-day church delights more in material acquisition! If that is not bad and idolatrous enough, what's worse is that we take the Holy Word and the Holy nature of our Holy God to justify our idolatrous pursuits, twisting the message of grace around to suit our fleshly appetites! And so once again let's weigh the elements of our original question- Who has more? Those who only have God or those who have God and everything else? It seems that the early church spent a good amount of time getting rid of the "everything else"!

God or Everything Else? Part 1

A wise man once asked me a question: Who has more? Someone who only has God or someone who has God and everything else?

Because of the rhetorical nature of the question, we all know that someone who only has God has more than one who has God and everything else. However, how many of us have lived that reality? Alvin likes to ask the question: Is God part of your life or is God your life? It seems that many of us like to squeeze in God together with everything else in our lives and ironically, we end up having less and not living the fullness of life if we had just given up "everything else" in the first place. Often we put God on equal footing with the rest of our activities, if not at a lesser place. We spend an inordinate amount of time on work, leisure and entertainment apart from true communion with God. And when we do spend time with God, we commodify it, we tokenize it, we give God a token of our time or service just to ease our conscience. And we fail to see that the "everything else" in our lives that we have placed on equal or greater footing than God are actually the idols of our lives.

It all boils down to this question- are we satisfied with only God or do we need everything else to supplement God's place in our lives that we may be fully satisfied? Why is it that we all seem to bow down to that deception that other things apart from God should satisfy, or that God alone will not satisfy and we need everything else to supplement His place in our lives? In fact, it seems that the opposite is true- perhaps the very reason that we are not satisfied is cos we try to supplement God with everything else! And we won't be truly satisfied until He becomes the only source of our satisfaction! Perhaps the reason why we're not truly satisfied is because in relegating God to merely a corner or a predetermined "space" in our lives, we fail to honour Him, that is, we fail to allow Him to be all that He is in our lives! In attempting to satisfy ourselves with counterfeits, we fail to free Him and let Him occupy our lives fully and thus receive the fullness of life He brings! We keep Him boxed up by our own agenda, pleasures and desires. By clinging onto our "everything else", we make Him rather insignificant and we don't give Him the place, the platform to be all that He can be to us!

I've always been a the-cup-is-half-empty sorta person and my journey led to the following conclusion. Why is it that we celebrate every little experience with God, every little trickle of the Holy Spirit, etc.. why is it that we celebrate God is such small quantities when Jesus has come to give life and life abundantly? Let's look at it the other way around- instead of celebrating the little droplets of divine experience we receive in a cup, let's consider the rest of the glass that is empty. Why aren't we experiencing fullness? Even David said "my cup overflows" (Psalm 23) and even that's in the Old Covenant! Surely we have something better? Jesus died to give us that place of liberty and abundance! He died to bring many sons to glory- that we may experience the fullness of life with Abba Father! And anything below that fullness is an affront to the cross! Living below that is a disgrace to the kind of price and sacrifice that Jesus made on Calvary! Perhaps in celebrating the little we have of God, we show how small-minded we really are and how our minds are not renewed by Scripture. We've taken the trickle to be the normal Christian life but Scriptures tell us that the abundant life is the normal life! Perhaps we need to move onto a new normal and that's what i wanna consider in this post and the successive posts- If God has fullness and abundance for us, what will that fullness look like?

What does a life look like that is totally surrendered to God? What does a life look like that is totally possessed and filled by God? We need to know and see that place of fullness if we're ever gonna get there! Cos vision propels us into action! Otherwise, we'll always be content with where we are, being satisfied with the mediocre! We need the vision, the blueprint, the knowledge of what a mature son of God looks like so that we can possess that place! And we need to explore what that kind of life looks like so that we can prepare ourselves to get there! This is not to lament our current position but rather to understand that God is holding out to us a vision of something greater to be possessed by those who will dare to pay the price!