Chapter 8

WRITING YOUR OWN TICKET

     It is an exciting thing to witness when faith works a complete transformation in the life of someone you know. When this happens there stands before you a living demonstration that the Spirit of God is active and energetic, converting the raw material of human existence into what J. B. Phillips calls "muscular Christianity." I want to tell you about a lovely and gracious woman whose life is a constant exemplification of understanding and compassion.

     It was not always thus. She grew up in a family where her parents were suspicious of each other and of everyone else. In their conversation about the table they were always critical and judgmental of neighbors and relatives. Destructive gossip was the pastime and they indulged in it with a vengeance. Motives were always bad. Everything was negative. Few people visited the home although it was located in a friendly and hospitable neighborhood. The woman of whom I am writing told me that she could not recall one person in the neighborhood of whom her family had ever spoken a commendatory word.

     She knew no other way of life and when she married she started to carry on as her mother did before her. However, her husband was of a different caliber. He told her one day he did not want to hear one detrimental thing said about others. He further said he preferred she not talk at all until she could find something to say about others that was good. It was like a slap in the face and she was furious. She refused to speak to her husband for several days. Brooding and worried about the breakdown of communications with one whom she loved, she went to the minister of a nearby congregation and told him about her problem.

     Fortunately, he pulled no punches but laid it on the line. He pointed out that her childhood home was devoid of faith in Jesus and thus the lives of her parents were empty. He told her that when people are starving they will eat anything and may even become cannibals. This is what had happened to her father and mother who were devouring one another and others because they were without Christ. They were starving for affection which they were unable to demonstrate. When she asked what she could do to keep from becoming like them he wrote her out a prescription consisting of three parts or ingredients.

     Each day she was to read a chapter in one of the gospel records of the life of Jesus. As she did she was to underline every statement made by Jesus which seemed to condemn anything in her lifestyle and practice. Both morning and evening she was to pray in solitude for the help of the Holy Spirit in purging her heart of the carnal desire to think and speak evil of others. Each day she was to mentally select someone and concentrate on something good in that person's life. When possible she was to tell the individual about the good in his life. This consists of what Dr. George W. Crane calls "joining the compliment club."

     Within a very few days a noticeable change started to take place. The woman began to be creative and considerate. In two months she was a changed individual. She told me that when she became aware of the grace and forgiveness of God she looked at those around her through different eyes. As she concentrated upon what Jesus said the Holy Spirit enabled her to put to death the works of the flesh. She is now in demand as a speaker at meetings and conventions of Christian women where she vibrantly relates what God will do for those who trust in Him.

     I was especially impressed with one thing she told me. As she began to change her attitude toward others she noticed that life became easier for her. The low periods of depression began to disappear. The waters of life became calmer. As she learned to appreciate those around her there were fewer problems. Her physical health was improved as her mental state was altered. God began to measure out to her blessings which she had not previously known. She is now thoroughly convinced that you reap what you sow, and that some of the reaping takes place on earth. Suddenly she has sensed the real meaning of adventure in the Spirit!

     Before I leave her case I want to mention that she told me she thought a lot of people were mumblers, bumblers or grumblers, and she realized that she started out in life to be a grumbler. She then took from her purse a card upon which she had written a scriptural quotation. It read: "Do not grumble, brethren against one another, that you may not be judged" (James 5:9). I suggested she ought to get a number of th^se printed and pass out to her friends and I felt like I might need one to carry in my pocket.

     The book of Esther has always been one of the most interesting books in the old covenant scriptures to me. Admittedly, it reads more like a patriotic account than hke a religious treatise, but it is a gripping story of how God rules and overrules in the plans of men. This is all the more intriguing because the name of God does not once appear in the text. It is a suspense story, a genuine "cliff-hanger," filled with action and with a surprise on every page. It is one of the greatest demonstrations of the working of divine providence ever put into print.

     In this little volume is depicted the clever conspiracy of a jealous political hack to climb into prominence by the practice of genocide. Like Adolf Hitler he was so inflamed wth the poison of anti-Semitism that he planned at a given signal to have all of the Jews exterminated. One of the gripping features of the book is how every evil he planned for others ended up falling upon his own head. Finally, he ignominiously died swinging from the gallows he had erected upon which to hang a man of whom he was insanely jealous.

     The principle of retribution in kind seemed so consistent to our pioneer ancestors they incorporated it in axioms and proverbs as they did every thought which they valued. They spoke of "chickens coming home to roost." They spoke of one being forced to eat out of his own spoon, or of being paid back in his own coin. When they saw someone besmirched in character who had sought to malign another they said he was tarred by his own brush. These homely little expressions referred to the just recompense visited upon one who tried to curry favor by trampling others down.

PLANTING THORNS

     There is an Indian proverb which dates back some thirteen hundred years and which says, "He that plants thorns must never expect to gather roses." And there is a homely American story of a butcher who complained to a woman who sold him butter that each pound was about two ounces underweight. The woman explained this by telling him she had lost the one pound weight for her scales and had been balancing the butter against the pound of ground beef which she obtained from the butcher.

     Jesus clearly taught that a man creates the standard by which he will be judged. We will be weighed in the scales which we use to weigh others. God will accept our own yardstick as the criterion by which we will be measured. "For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get." If your basis of judgment for your brothers is strict conformity to legalistic procedure and you deviate from that law in the slightest degree you sign your own death warrant and seal your own doom. As an example, if you demand that others have the same degree of spiritual knowledge as yourself before you will receive them as children of God, then you must have the same degree of knowledge as God has before He will receive you as one of His children. This means that if you postulate fellowship with others upon attainment to a specific degree of knowledge, using your own knowledge as the basis, then you cannot be in fellowship with God until you attain to the degree of knowledge which He possesses. You will be damned, not because God desires to judge you thus, but because you chose that basis of judgment.

     The way to assure that God will be lenient and merciful unto you is to be forbearing and forgiving toward your brethren. "Accept life with humility and patience, making allowances for one another because you love one another" (Ephesians 4:2. Phillips). Since we cannot claim perfection God must either make some allowances for us or we will be lost. I am convinced He is willing to do this because He loves us. But if we do not love our brothers enough to make allowances for their ignorance and mistaken views God cannot make allowance for us. We cannot expect to measure others by one rule and be measured by another.

     It is for this reason we are under a "law of liberty" which means that we operate under a motivating principle of freedom. The apostle says, "We are free to serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit" ( Romans 7:6). Note the contrast between a written code and the new life. If we were under law and not under grace we could not make allowances for one another regardless of the degree of our love.

     We would have to "exact the pound of flesh" for every failure because law knows nothing of mercy, but only of justice. Mercy must be in the heart of the judge. It is not in the law. Since we serve in a new way and a new life we can extend mercy for ignorance and mitigating circumstances. Circumstances do make a difference. "Anyway, you should speak and act as men who will be judged by the law of freedom. The man who makes no allowances for others will find none made for him. It is still true that 'mercy smiles in the face of judgment.' " (James 2:12,13).

     Recently, on the outskirts of a town I saw a sign which read: "Speed Limit--25 Miles Per Hour. Fine--One Dollar for every mile in excess of limit. Write your own ticket!" In that town the judge will assess you according to your own decision. The eternal judge will do the same. It is well to recall that Jesus said, "For if you forgive people their failures, your heavenly Father will forgive you; but if you do not forgive people their failures neither will your heavenly Father forgive yours" (Matthew 6:14,15). In my own life it is an interesting experiment to sit down and think of some of the failures I have made and then to think of how I would like for God to deal with them. Then, all I need to do is to carry out the same approach to the failures of others. It is no wonder that through the ages this has been called "the golden rule." It represents about the highest level of approach to human dignity possible unto man on earth.

     A prospective proselyte once approached the aged Rabbi Hillel (who died when Jesus was about ten years old) and enquired of him what was involved in obeying the law. The reply was, "What is hateful to thee, do not unto others. This is the law, the rest is commentary." Jesus agreed that the rest was commentary but he turned it from a negative to a positive statement. "Therefore in whatever way you would have people treat you, treat them the same; for this sums up the law and the Prophets." You are writing your own ticket!

     I am sure most of you have heard about the Greek legendary figure called Procrustes, which means "The Stretcher." He was one of a number of fabled brigands who patrolled the roads near Eleusis in Attica, taking frightful toll of travelers. Procrustes had an iron bedstead and when he captured an individual he threw him upon it and tied him down. If the person was too long he sawed off his legs until he matched the bed for length. If he was too short Procrustes used iron stretchers to make him conform. When Procrustes was taken into custody by Theseus, the great national hero, he was treated to the same punishment he had administered to others. Theseus measured him upon his own bed and cut him down to size. This was the Greek way of illustrating the truth which had become proverbial among the Jews and was repeated by Jesus. "Judge not that you be not judged, for with what judgment you judge you will be judged."

     Ever since I was a youngster I have been moved by the poem of Robert Southey concerning the Inchcape Bell. The bell was atop a buoy off the dangerous shore of Scotland. Its ceaseless ringing amidst the lashing breakers served as a warning to ships getting too close to the rocks. But one day Sir Ralph the Rover, the drunken captain of a privateer, bent over from the side of his boat and cut the bell loose from its moorings. It sank into the depths with a gurgling sound. Weeks later with his ship loaded with plunder, the captain steered for the coast of Scotland. A dense fog made it impossible for him to see the land and the frightened sailors listened in vain for the warning bell. The ship was wrecked upon the rocks and all who were aboard perished in the depths.

LETTING GOD BE GOD

     In the year of 1952 there was published in England a fascinating little book of less than 120 pages. It bore the title Your God is Too Small and its author was the clever and versatile J. B. Phillips. The writer acted upon the supposition that a lot of people in our day would believe in and accept a God who was big enough to handle modern needs. Unfortunately, the God offered by the various denominations, seemed to the world to be helpless and inadequate to cope with the problems of the space age.

     Phillips divided his book into two parts. In the first he exposed the feeble and childish concepts projected by a lot of believers. In the second he offered practical suggestions of ways by which we might discover the real God of the universe for ourselves. In the section devoted to unreal Gods, the one I like best is titled "God-in-a-box." This does not mean the other essays are inferior. They are all powerful and penetrating. I think the reason I appreciate so highly the one I mention is because it uncovers my own frightening tendency in the past.

     It is very comfortable for one who is reared in an exclusive religious circle to drift into the arrogant assumption that God is more interested in and concerned with those of his party than with others outside of that particular pale. I presume it is easy for Presbyterians to assume that God is a Presbyterian, while Methodists think of him as being a Methodist. Somehow we tend to get our rationalizations and fantasies mixed up until it appears to us that if we are trying to be like God He must at the same time be trying to be like us. The sin of the Jews before Jesus came was that they forgot that they belonged to God and thought that God belonged to them. It became easier to push Judaism than to project obedience to God.

     The tragedy of all this is that as we minimize God we maximize ourselves. Human pride is a tricky thing and when it is multiplied by the number of those constituting a religious caste it actually becomes dangerous. It can readily be converted into a mob spirit concealed under what appears to be robes of righteousness. Almost as bad, it can just as readily convince us that God would be severely handicapped and might not even make it without us. God must either operate through our machinery or He cannot operate at all. He can only go where we take Him!

     If we have God safely ensconced in our box others can see Him only when we lift the lid. If we judge they are unworthy or might prove detrimental or embarrassing to the promotion of our cause we might not even lift the cover at all. In that case they will be "without hope and without God in the world." In any event they must come to us before they can come to Him. Playing God is one of the most popular and fashionable games in every age. It is as old as Satan and as new as the newest sect!

     When we allow our spiritual thinking to mature we must awaken to the fact that it is not really God we have in our box. It is an image of God. We have made God in our image and in our likeness. There is no real indication that God pays the slightest attention to any of our historical boxes. He is free and unconfined. He cannot be crammed into a movement, party or sect. We are limited, inhibited and circumscribed by our creedal constructions but our God inhabits the universe.

     Jesus taught that the will of the Father is sovereign and He has a perfect right to administer His affairs as He wishes. What God wills to do is right, because He has the right to will to do it! He may dispose fully of His blessings irrespective of any previous agreement. This is illustrated in the story of the farmer who went to hire laborers for His vineyard. Early in the morning he hired a group after agreeing to pay them each a silver coin per day. He went out again at nine o'clock in the morning, at noon, and at three o'clock and five o'clock in the afternoon. Each time he hired additional workers and told them to go to work and he would give them a fair wage.

     At sundown the laborers were summoned and lined up to receive their pay. The foreman was told to start with the last ones who were hired and pay them first. As each came forward he was handed a silver coin. Those who were employed first expected to receive more but each got just one silver coin. This caused a lot of grumbling which came to the ears of the farmer. He said to them, "I'm not being unjust with you. Wasn't our agreement for a silver coin a day? Take your money and go home. It is my wish to give the latecomer as much as I give you. May I not do what I like with what belongs to me? Must you be jealous because I am generous?"

     In the final day of accounts there may be those who will share in the blessing of God's bounty, not upon the basis of an agreement, but upon the basis of fairness and justice. Jesus continually held out that no law was of universal application. We dare not bind God by a law which He has given to bind us. The source of all authority is not subject to the authority which proceeds from Himself. Moreover, when God put all things under the feet of Jesus He excepted Himself.

     The grace of God existed before the church and is greater than the church. The grace of God created the church and was not created by it. We are under grace and not over it. While we have no right to violate the agreement of God, nor seek to receive His blessing upon any other ground. He will not violate that agreement if He sees fit to extend mercy above and beyond it. He can do what He wishes with what belongs unto Him. Let us hope we shall not be found grumbling about His administration of mercy nor seek to argue about our human concept of fairness.

THE UNIFIED LIFE

     Jesus was a perplexing person to many who heard Him while He was on earth. They were disturbed by the fact that He taught, as well as by the facts which He taught. In the first place He did not make teaching His profession so He was not a professional teacher. Indeed, many of the greatest truths He uttered were spoken almost casually. Some of them were answers to hecklers. A famous man once said of a rural schoolteacher who had inspired him. "He taught as much before school and after as he did while we were sitting at our desks. There was no use of talking about taking up school for he never let it out. We learned as much from him by playing with him at recess or when walking home with him as we did while poring over our books."

     Jesus did not attend one of the schools for scribes. He did not go to a college for rabbinical students. He made no appeal to formal degrees or educational attainments as a reason why He should be heard. He never advertised His intellectual attainments. He was not a theologian and offered the people no course in systematic theology.

     The scribes were generally sure of themselves, but they were not always sure of their teaching. It was too frequently a subject of dispute with other scribes. The difference between Jesus and the scribes was easily seen by the people. "When Jesus had finished this discourse the people were astonished at his teaching; unlike their own teachers he taught with a note of authority" (Matthew 7:28,29). Any person who dares to rise above the narrow concepts of his age and set forth great principles will gain both enemies and friends. Jesus was no exception as his attendance at the Feast of Shelters upon one occasion demonstrated. "The Jews were looking for him at the festival and asked, 'Where is he?' and there was much whispering about him in the crowds. 'He is a good man,' said some. 'No,' said others, he is leading the people astray.' "

     It was this occasion which gave Jesus an opportunity to enforce some great truths. One of these is the inner testimony to the truth of God which is resident in every sincere individual who is unreservedly following Christ to the best of his ability. It is not essential that one be conversant with the logical processes which go into books on apologetics in order to have assurance of the divine origin of the message of our Lord. Another principle is that a man demonstrates his sincerity when he aims at the honor of the one who sent him, rather than seeking for self-praise. These affirmations were called forth because of the astonishment of the Jews.

     Here is the way the scriptures record it. "When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up to the temple and began to teach. The Jews were astonished. 'How is it,' they said, 'that this untrained man has such learning?' Jesus replied, 'The teaching I give is not my own, it is the teaching of him that sent me. Whoever has the will to do the will of God shall know whether my teaching comes from him or is merely my own. Anyone whose teaching is merely his own, aims at honor for himself. But if a man aims at the honor of him who sent him he is sincere, and there is nothing false in him" (John 7:14-18).

     It is my personal conviction that the teaching of Jesus would provoke about as much astonishment today as it did among the Jews, if it was correctly evaluated. Actually, most of us take what Jesus said and fit it into thought patterns of our own. We have formulated our ideas of goodness and righteousness and into these moulds we pour the great teachings of the Master and conceive of the crystallized forms we produce as being those of heaven. Men tend to think of holiness in terms of places and times. They define goodness in relation to specific deeds. To them, it consists of particular performances in a particular manner. The one who does these things is considered to be a righteous man because he does them. All of this would be regarded by Jesus as superficial, perhaps even a hypocritical approach.

     Jesus taught the ideal of a completely unified life, an existence wholly integrated and not separated into various departments. The entire personality is governed by a central force and it is this abiding internal principle which makes one good. Goodness does not consist in the mere performance of deeds. It is an inner quality of being. There is no distinction between thoughts and deeds, or between motives and actions. Things are good because they are done by good men. It is the man, not merely the transaction, which makes the difference. "A good man produces good from the store of good within himself; and an evil man from evil produces evil" (Matthew 12:35).

     The nobility of this concept escaped the legalists in the days when Jesus was on earth. It still escapes those on earth since Jesus returned to heaven. Few of us dare even yet to believe that "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, or a poor tree good fruit" (Matthew 7:18). An apple tree is not an apple tree because it has apples on it, but because it is that kind of tree it bears apples. It is obvious that if it is impossible for a good tree to produce bad fruit, then whatever is produced by such a tree must be good. However, men tend to exalt laws instead of the principles such laws were given to preserve. The keeping of such laws then becomes the chief good. Any deviation therefrom is regarded as evil.

     There is a higher good than that of keeping laws. Laws are given to regulate relationships and those relationships are superior to the regulations. Jesus used as an example the case of David and his men when they were fleeing from Saul. Being hungry, they entered the sacred precincts of the house of God and ate the loaves of the Presence, "which it was not lawful for them to eat." When there is a conflict between perpetuation of life and performance of law, the first becomes the chief good. Life is superior to law! Actually there is no conflict about this in the heart of the one who truly understands Jesus, for he spontaneously does what is right. He "produces good from the store of good within." He does not have to stop and quibble about the matter. The decision has been made long ago. It is not the good deed which produces the store within, but it is the good store within that produces the good deed. It is not new deeds or new acts that Jesus wants, but new men! "You must be made new in mind and spirit, and put on the new nature of God's creating, which shows itself in the just and devout life called for by truth" ( Ephesians 4:24).

GOD'S ARTESIAN WELLS

    Jesus taught that while all righteousness welled up from within it had to flow out. He knew nothing about a faith kept bottled up by traditional restraints. So effervescent was true religion and goodness that they would burst the bottles (Luke 5:37). The faith never grows old but wineskins do and when they lose their elasticity the faith makes a breach in them and flows out. It cannot be contained in historic structures.

     Jesus knew that religion was not a stagnant pool. It was a flowing spring. It was not a cistern but an artesian well. It is significant that it was when he was sitting on the curb of a cistern or well that Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, "The water that I shall give will be an inner spring always welling up for eternal life." It is no less significant that it was near the site of one of the great springs which helped to create the Jordan River that He said, "Upon this rock I will plant my community and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." On the final day of the festival in Jerusalem He said of the believer, "Streams of living water shall flow out from within him" (John 7:38).

     Here, then is the real test of whether one has been touched by Jesus. When Moses struck the rock at Horeb, water gushed out of it to quench the thirst of the people who were murmuring (Exodus 17:16). One moment it was Just a rock, hard and impenetrable. Now it was a source of life. Everyone could see that something tremendous had happened. Our hearts are like rock until God fills them with His Spirit. Until that happens we are merely a part of the complaining mob. Under the hand of God we become channels of grace and blessing. The power of God is never demonstrated more than when a selfish, grasping individual is burst asunder and generosity, kindness and compassion "flow through the desert like a river."

     The true religion was to be known by its fruits. Jesus knew that a religion which did not reveal itself openly was empty and vacuous. He pronounced a sentence of condemnation upon the fig tree when He came and found no fruit. He could not be content with mere leaves. There are no ornamental trees in God's acreage. The church is not a park but an orchard. One either bears fruit or cumbers the ground. God demands the whole man and nothing less. Someone has said, "It does not take much of a man to make a Christian, but it takes all of him there is."

     Jesus only painted one verbal picture of the final judgment scene and in it He made no allusion to worthiness based upon knowledge of doctrine, theological perception or argumentative ability. He did not say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, for you have memorized the entire letter to the Hebrews." He spoke of such things as giving food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty, of welcoming strangers, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and those in prison. The criterion for entering into life and possessing the kingdom was simply the good done for others. This was not an orthodoxy of doctrine but of doing.

     It is interesting to note that in this presentation Jesus goes to some length to show that those who gave food and drink, showed hospitality, sheltered the homeless and clothed the naked, did not know they were doing it for Him. They were motivated by compassion and not by hope of reward. They were not so much demonstrating their religion as their character. Their good deeds were not partisan gimmicks to advertise "our church" or to influence people toward it. They were simply sharing what they had with suffering humanity and were surprised to hear Jesus say, "Anything you did for one of my brothers here, however humble, you did for me."

     This may help to explain another statement of Jesus. "I tell you there is not a thoughtless word that comes from men's lips but they will have to account for it in the day of judgment." The King James Version has "idle word." The Revised Standard Version renders it "careless word." I confess that this used to bother me. That was before I considered it in the light of the context. At first it seems very extreme. It tends to portray God as a harsh and exacting taskmaster instead of a loving Father. But we must remember that a man does not reveal his true self when he is on guard and watching every word. It is when his guard is down and he is not trying to make an impression for social or other reasons that he shows what he really is. Many a man is the soul of politeness when he is sitting in a Sunday School class. But that same man may be wholly different when he is on the job on Monday.

     It is the careless or idle word, the chance act, which gives a glimpse into the heart. You cannot judge a man so well by his formal as by his informal speech. Since judgment has to do with the man as he is, this is the proper criterion--the word idly spoken, the careless or thoughtless expression.

THE UNVEILED FACE

     Jesus taught that the inner quality called goodness is never static. It is ever changing and amending character for the better. The good man is never satisfied with his current state. He must be ever climbing, and never standing still. Complacency has no place in the life of the concerned one. The man who stands and boasts of what he is and what he has done merits no notice from God. An outcast from society who bows his head, smites his breast, confesses his sins, and prays for forgiveness, goes to his house justified rather than the other. The apostle Paul makes a statement which portrays the creative nature of the goodness which keeps the eye fixed upon Jesus. "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:16).

     "The unveiled face. . . are being changed." Think about these expressions. It is the man who "sees through a glass darkly" who does not change. His vision is distorted, his perspective is warped, his sight is clouded. There are veils over the faces of many--veils of prejudice, of tradition, of partisanship. These allow only a blurred image of the Christ. One cannot properly discern his Lord through a veil of prejudice. Such a man may be like the disciples on the way to Emmaus. They were actually talking about Jesus and what had happened unto Him. It was inconceivable that anyone who resided in the vicinity of Jerusalem should not know these things. "As they talked and discussed it with one another, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but something held their eyes from seeing who it was" (Luke 24:15). It is possible to know a lot of things about Jesus and still not know Him! There are so many things which seem to hold our eyes!

     The goodness of which Jesus spoke is not merely outgoing. It is also ongoing. It produces a flexibility of soul, an elasticity of spirit, which allows itself to be shaped and reshaped by increasing knowledge. It is not hardened by conformity to the past or by the infirmity of the present. It is transformed and transforming, striving ever to an unattainable ideal, yet becoming more ideal for the striving. It regards the will of God, not as a restraining fence but as a ladder, and even as one climbs the rungs he looks between them to a new vista and a better world offering new challenges for tomorrow.

     Our lives may be circumscribed by circumstances. One may be physically handicapped until he is confined to one place until another comes and moves his wheelchair. We may seem chained to one spot by conditions beyond our control. But the mind is not chained unless we will it so. In his Yale lectures on preaching John Henry Jowett tells of a visit to a shoe cobbler in Wales. He asked the man if he did not feel cramped by his very small shop in which there was hardly room to turn around. The man said he did not and asked the noted preacher to follow him to a window that opened out upon the sea. "When I feel tired and cramped, I look through this window and it steadies me," he said. His physical surroundings were cramped but his vision was unlimited. This is what happens to any person who allows the Word of God to be a window in which to look at the universe, rather than a wall which fences us in!

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