Out and About 25 Two Choices Every Next Moment

[HKHaugan]

Our faith in Jesus as we are out and about in the presence of others is the mark of contact between all that is seen and unseen. Faith is the bridge between God and man. But it is what is seen that is in the judgment scales of those with whom we come in contact every day. Can they see the spiritual dimension in us? That is the question of authentic witness as are these following questions. Can they see the light of Christ? Can they gather the fragrance of His sacrifice and offering as we relate to them or simply live our lives in front of them? Can they sense the Spirit moving through and about us? Can they apprehend that we are His ambassadors? Can they find logic in our reasoning, love in our heart, hope in our eyes and humility before God in our presence?

Right away these questions may make us self-conscious about how we look and act which is half right. That’s especially true if we are making an effort to meet those expectations with human power and control, which is half wrong. The right is being spiritually and relationally conscious of God’s ultimate control. The wrong is thinking we can take control alone.

When we made the conscious choice to follow Jesus it was due to any number of crises that faced us in our mind, our heart and our spirit. Crises over which we knew we didn’t have control. That moment of lostness when we were put on the spot to give an answer and didn’t have one or in the midst of a problem beyond our ability to solve or faced with a challenge we were too afraid to tackle. In those moments the fact of our aloneness surfaced and its awareness paralyzed our response.

Those moments were real. The bully in our school years, the tests we avoided studying for, the words we didn’t have when someone we longed for stood there in front of us, the verbal interview when our future lay in the hands of a prospective employer, the unknown cause of a pain that we didn’t want to deal with, embarrassments that kept us on guard, the realization that ultimately we didn’t have control in any area of our lives. It is in this vast area of the unseen dimension the greatest threats occur.

But it is not the exterior threat threatening us. It is the interior fear fearing the exterior circumstance because it is something over which we realize in those lonely moments, no one has control. We search our interior and try to manufacture some means to escape the issues that drag us into the tunnel of uncertainty and anxiety.

Instead of building paths to open us up we take the bricks of fear and pride to build strongholds that we believe will protect us in our aloneness. This is what sin has done to every human being. Sin alienates, isolates, polarizes and freezes our internal machinery.

There are only two routes out. We either take control through pride (faith in self alone), which only isolates more or we admit helplessness and turn to the Creator (faith in God alone) for a door that opens us to a relationship of light, of hope and of love. That door is not in the visible but in the invisible---the heart, the mind and the spirit---that when opened to Jesus brings the Spirit to recover and bring us new life in Him. Jesus was absolutely right when He said the Kingdom of God is within. That’s where the real processing of life takes place. That is why Jesus came into the flesh. He came to give us relief from the burdens of fear, pride and aloneness through faith in Him. That’s why He said He is the way.

What we are saying here is that accepting our lack of control we let Jesus take control in every ‘out and about’ moment. How do we do that? There are three steps, prayer, Scripture study and relying on brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ for their support. The Body is where we practice the presence of God with others. In worship, in study groups and in prayer gatherings we strengthen ourselves for the unknown and the unseen in every next moment. What we do in the Body is practice letting Jesus become the Lord and Master of every next moment. It is not what we do in our power; it is what Jesus does when we prepare for Him to take over in every next moment in the ‘out and about.’

Keep rigidly in our mind the fact that believer and unbeliever alike are the personal concern of the Father. There is no circumstance in which He is not present. He is aware and completely knowledgeable about every single person past, present and future. That is what Jesus went to the Cross to show and rise from the dead to prove. “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom.8:37-39).”