Recently, my wife, Dorothy, and I (Michael) watched a
movie called Kate and Leopold, starring Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman.
It was toward the end that I realized that God was using it to speak His
heart to me.
The plot of
the movie takes place in modern Manhattan, New York, but spills over into a time
warp some hundred and thirty years earlier. Kate McKay's former boy friend,
Stuart, who lives in the flat above her, has found a hole in time that enables
him to travel back and forth to the time of an English duke who was living in
that same neighborhood thirteen decades earlier.
As fate would
have it, Leopold follows Stuart back to the present. Leopold wakes up in
Stuart's apartment in total shock, and soon discovers that he is in an alien
world of modern inventions and punk rockers with spiked hair. Leopold meets Kate
when she comes up to Stuart's apartment to take back her Palm Pilot. They
eventually fall in love as Kate is won over by his wonderful chivalry and
kindness.
Stuart is out
of the scene for a few days when he falls down the empty elevator shaft on the
apartment building because of a malfunctioning elevator, but finally makes his
way back from the hospital. He informs Leopold that he must go back to his own
era or the space-time continuum will be broken, causing havoc with their present
world. So Leopold, unable to woo Kate because of her incessant doubt and
impending career in the present, goes back without her. At the end, Kate's
brother and Stuart are able to convince her that she must go back in time to
find Leopold because she actually IS part of the space-time continuum in that
by-gone era.
I was struck
by Kate's parting words of as she said good-bye to the modern world and elected
to take the leap of faith into that slower and gentler time so many years
earlier -- into the arms of the one who really loved her. As the movie ended, I
pondered the words that she spoke and I choked up, thinking that this movie
depicted so closely what Jesus has actually done in coming to the earth, dying
for our sins and returning to the Father in heaven. What Kate had to do was
exactly what Jesus is asking each one of us who is His bride to do.
Kate had
finally arrived at all that she had been scrambling after in this dog eat dog
world. She got the position of Senior Vice President of the New York office of
her research and advertising company. The problem was that she found a man that
stole her heart away while she was on the climb. Like so many of us who name the
name of Christ, she even used him along her way to get what she thought she
wanted. Finally the light came on in her heart. Here is what she said to the
dinner party where her new appointment was announced:
"It's a
great thing to get what you want. It's a really good thing unless what you
thought you wanted wasn't what you really wanted because what you really wanted
you couldn't imagine or you didn't think it was possible.
"But what
if someone came along who knew exactly what you wanted without asking – they
just knew like they could hear your heart beating or just listened to your
thoughts. And what if they were sure of themselves and they didn't have to take
a poll and they loved you, and you hesitated . . . and . . . I have to go. I'm
sorry, but I have to go."
Leopold and Kate, a Type of Jesus and His Bride
Jesus had to go home to His heavenly Father and told the ones
whom He loved, "Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You shall
seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, I now say to you also, Where I am going, you
cannot come. . .. Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but
you shall follow later." (John 13:33
and 36, NASB).
Like Leopold, Jesus had to go back home, but he left a hunger
in those men and women that nothing in this world could fill. They would not be
content until they joined the One who loved them like no other.
As Jesus was facing death later that very week He prayed,
"I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have
given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have
kept Your word.
"Where I am going. . .you can not follow me now." When Peter
heard this he was so upset that he was ready to run right out, get a sword and
fight to the death to stay by Jesus' side. Peter and the others could not follow
him now. The problem was not in their
lack of zeal, but in their lack of maturity. They were not ready, but there was
a promise given to them and to each of us who
follow on to know the Lord. That
promise is, ". . . but you shall follow later."
Many of us have been taught to put off in our thinking this
follow later until it is nothing more
in our minds and hearts than so much pie
in the sky by and by. We have been told that we must "occupy until He comes
again." This becomes translated in our modern Christian thinking, "Get a job, go
to church, have a family and find your American dream." To this we politely say,
"Rubbish!" There is a heavenly abiding in the
now that Jesus has made a way for and
it goes way beyond the seducing downward pull of this world system and all its
enticements. Paul said, "We
now dwell in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus," not "If we are good enough citizens in this world and go to church we
will dwell in heaven later." It is still the desire of Jesus
that where He is, there we may be also.
Remember, He prayed this while He was still in His fleshly body.
So much of today's Christian teaching has made it impossible
for our minds to grasp that there is a NOW
dwelling in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So many of us, like Kate McKay of
Manhattan, have never dreamed that there was any other world than the little
island where we have spent our whole lives in the limitations of our belief
structures. Jesus did not come to put those whom He loves in a box called the
Christian religion and turn them over to the regimens of this world system. He
came that we might have life and have
it more abundantly – that we might have peace, not as the world gives, both
now and in the
next life to come. As these two dimensions become welded together in
our hearts as one, we become one in Christ, enter eternal life and start really
living in the Father as Jesus did here on earth.
Have you felt the touch of His hand? Have you heard that
noble voice that is calling unto you about a higher way? It is a voice that
calls, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo, the winter is
past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of
singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig
tree puts forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes give a good
smell. Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away!” (Song of Solomon 2:10-13,
NKJV).
"He Must Increase, but I
[Must] Decrease"
Dear saints, don't take this wrong. Where we and many others
are being called, some cannot go right now. They have ministries to build,
careers to pursue, and are too distracted by the practicalities of THIS world to
follow the call of the One who beckons to them to come aside and spend time with
Him. Be assured the Lord is calling each of you there, but you have to let go of
the one life in order to grasp the other.
Recently I, Michael, exchanged letters and phone calls with a
brother that was caught up in the new revelations that he received from the Lord
and the numerous books that he had written. He was convinced that HE had the
keys to heaven's door that everyone else needed. Like children, so many of us
grasp a small part of spirituality we have seen and are so eager to tell others
that what we have is the whole picture and unless they see it just as we do,
they are really missing out. We fight this mindset all the time. It is
self-exalting and divisive at best, and worst of all, it stops you from learning
anything new unless it lines up perfectly with your previously acquired
revelations.
Here is part of the exchange I had with this brother:
"____, the Lord has been taking me to that place where
understanding all mysteries and having all knowledge mean nothing to me. Like
Paul said, 'I am determined to know nothing, but Jesus Christ and Him
crucified.' The time comes when we count all else as dung, our revelations, our
books, our articles, our acceptability and following. Jesus is enough. I think
that THIS is about as good an explanation of death to self that there is. Seek
it with all your heart, my brother."
Brother ____ replied,
"Well, if I am understanding you right, then you should take
down your web site and quit teaching as well. Is this what you are saying? It
just doesn't seem clear to me."
Actually, this is a good observation on his part. We would
and will do just that. If anything we have been teaching does not point men and
women to a more intimate relationship with our Savior, it needs to be cut and
discarded. All we want to see in the body of Christ is each member securely
attached to the Head, not to us, our "great" revelations or anything else.
So many people in ministry today want to project a Christ
that they can manipulate from behind the curtain like the Wizard of Oz. Jesus is
not the Great Oz and His true ministers do not pull the strings and twist the
levers on an idol they have cleverly built in His place, the idol called "my
Ministry."
John the Baptist showed us the way to minister Christ to
others. His disciples came to him complaining and feeling threatened that Jesus'
disciples were baptizing more followers than he. His answer was succinct, "He
who has the bride is the Bridegroom. But the friend of the Bridegroom rejoices
when he hears His voice." He also said, "He must increase, but I [must]
decrease." God is showing us what it means to be a true friend of the
Bridegroom. Our calling is only to deliver the bride of Christ to Him as a
chaste virgin, not a chased woman ravaged by false suitors who take her to
themselves for their own gain and pleasure.
Jesus
said, "But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, `Where are
You going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your
heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go
away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart,
I will send Him to you" (John 16:5-7, NKJV).
In a sense, even the flesh and blood Jesus had to
decrease. Many people who have been
wounded by false ministries have come to us. Like the lame man lying beside the
pool of Bethesda, they cry out, "I have no man!" We send some of them away sad
when we point them back to Jesus and away from the need to
have a man. A vast percentage of
Christendom is dependent on powerful and charismatic men and women who need to
be needed. This is the same sin that Israel fell into at the time of Samuel the
prophet. They cried to him, "Give us a king so we can be like the other
nations." The need to follow a man and sit at his feet makes us like the heathen
nations of this fallen world order.
Jesus promised by His going away that He would send the
Comforter, the Holy Spirit, and that HE would lead us into all truth. Believe it
or not, the Holy Spirit is the One True Teacher! He can and will lead you always
to Jesus, THE TRUTH, and not to another. Obey Him! All human teachers can do is
verify as a second witness what you have been hearing from the Holy Spirit.
Jesus came to take
captivity captive and to give gifts unto men. He came to take YOUR captivity
captive and set you free from an unholy dependence on other men! This is why we
get a red flag when brothers or sisters comes along and say that THEY have the
keys to understanding or that THEY have the ONLY source to the true gospel or
that THEIR revelation is the only one that is complete. This is just another
trap! These people are setting themselves to make you captive to themselves!
Believe me, it will not be long until these "gifted ones" will be seeking YOUR
gifts and offerings so their "great ministry" can go forth and save the world.
The Holy Spirit has been given to each of you. His gifts are
for all to draw from, not just a few privileged officers in the church. You are
all priests and God has placed no higher priest caste over you. Jesus is our
only high priest and the one TRUE apostle. Let God be true and all men be liars.
Consider the ONE Apostle and High Priest of our faith:
Therefore,
holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High
Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed
Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house.
For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses,
inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. For every
house is built by someone, but He who
built all things is God. (Hebrews 3:1-4, NKJV).
Don't sell Jesus or His high calling short. Don't settle for
the false god of ministry or any other
god that is not Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. Abide in Him and let ministry be a by-product of that abiding in
His love. Do not let it become your love. Don't do as so many people of this
world do, both inside and out of the church. They sell out for a bit of pottage
made with its savory seasoned lamb. We have a great birthright that lies before
us. The way has been prepared by the very Son of God. Take the leap of love into
the Father's arms that He took. Overcome this world and its lusts by the blood
of the Lamb, the word of your living testimony, and love not your lives nor seek
them even unto death, that your joy might be full.
Are We About Our Father's
Business, Or Just Plain Busyness?
Over the past few months I (George) have
received several e-mails from sincere believers who have come out of the
busyness of Institutional Christianity, asking, "Am I just supposed to sit
around twiddling my thumbs and doing nothing?
What do I do now? Isn't there some ministry I can get involved in?"
One refreshingly honest sister wrote "I see what I've been doing wrong --
building my life on me instead of Him, seeking a ministry instead of HIM. . .but
I don't know what to do with myself now."
The religious climate of today, with its
devotion to programs, reminds me of the merry-go-round in the City Park in the
little town where I grew up. We kids loved to get on it and spin it as fast as
we could, the faster the better. Around this merry-go-round was a 360-degree
path, worn into the ground by the constant pounding and scuffing of little feet.
I loved the reckless, out of control feeling, as the world around me became a
surreal blur. A merry-go-round may give you the illusion that you are going
somewhere, but you always get off right where you got on. Though your feet are
back on the ground, you are still spinning in your mind, and sometimes a little
sick at your stomach. It takes a little while to recover your balance. Sadly,
many people who escape the institutional merry-go-round hardly have time to
recover their spiritual equilibrium before they get on the house
church-merry-go-round or some other merry-go-round.
The restlessness many people feel in the
interim is due to the fact that American Christianity has mistaken work for
fruitfulness. In John 15:5 Jesus spoke of the only way that we "branches" can do
anything. "I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in
him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." Just
as Jesus could do nothing of himself (John 5:19), neither can we unless we abide
in Him. Branches are fruit bearers, not workers. There is a big difference
between work and fruit. Work denotes labor and sweat; fruit speaks of inception,
organic life, nurturing and growth. Spiritually speaking, fruit is the byproduct
of the Spirit of Christ working in and through our lives, producing His fruit
unto righteousness. The branch cannot produce fruit of itself it must draw life
from the vine. As the life of the Vine passes through it, the fruit of the vine
effortlessly appears on the branch. The secret to fruitfulness is not busyness
but abiding.
Activity is not one bit holier than
inactivity. Both can be done independent of Christ. All work done apart from
Christ is nothing. The certain path to frustration begins by viewing
productivity in Christ as a matter of works rather than fruitfulness and
forgetting that fruit and works are two entirely different things. In Galatians
chapter five, Paul contrasts "the WORKS of the flesh" and "the FRUIT of the
Spirit." In Romans chapter seven we discover that we who believe have died unto
the law (the old husband) so we can be married to Christ and bring forth fruit
(offspring) unto God (see Romans 7:1-9). Such fruit is borne through intimate
union and communion with Christ. It would be easier to build a baby than it
would be to bring forth fruit unto Christ by working.
When he was asked, "What shall we do,
that we might work the works of God?" Jesus replied, "This is the work of God,
that you believe on him whom he hath sent" (John 6:28-29). In this time when He
is stripping so many of us of the religious trappings that have filled Christ's
place in our lives, do we, like so many activity junkies, seek another fix,
filling our calendar with every religious activity coming down the pike?
Or do we draw away to a place of intimacy with Christ where His fruit can
be nurtured in our lives? Seeking Him in secret brings open fruitfulness. Only
those things that are birthed by Christ are legitimate.
Jesus said that in the final judgment,
men would stand before Him offering their works as proof of their faithfulness
to Him. "Many will tell me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your
name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name DO MANY MIGHTY WORKS?'
Then I will tell them, 'I NEVER
KNEW YOU!' [Knew --Greek - ginosko -
Jewish idiom for sexual intercourse between a man and a woman.] Depart from
me, you who work iniquity'" (Mathew 7:22-23). Good fruit (verse 19) is only
produced by those who know Christ intimately. All other fruit, prophecy, casting
out demons and other mighty works--even though they are done in the name of
Jesus--that are not born out of an intimate abiding and knowing are iniquity.
They are Ishmaels, they are works of the flesh, they are nothing.
Because of the deafening roar of the
religious machinery throughout the land today, and the constant call of
religious men to join them in their busyness, very few can hear the call from
God's Vineyard, a call to come, abide, and bear fruit.
We leave you with these words from
Michael Card's stirring song "Present Reality," which is more a prayer than a
song. May it be our prayer as well!
Echo of history
A light so many strain to see
The One we talk so much about
But rarely ever live it out
Could You tell
me why
Was it for this You came and died
A once a week observance
When we coldly mouth Your words
Chorus
Lord I long to see
Your presence in reality
But I don't know how
Let me know You in the now
We should
confess
We lose You in our busyness
We've made You in our image
So our faith's idolatry
Lord, deliver
me
Break my heart so I can see
All the ways You dwell in us
That You're alive in me
Summary - Come Away My
Love
We feel the call to spend more time alone with the Lord,
ministering unto Him. It was as certain teachers and prophets ministered unto
the Lord in Antioch that the Holy Spirit spoke (see Acts 13:1-3). When God is
satisfied with us as living sacrifices offered up unto Him, He will be sure that
men will be satisfied.
So, dear saint, let us sum this up by saying, WE MUST GO --
all of us that others look to instead of to Jesus, the true Light. This is the
way of the cross. THIS is what is meant by
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is what is meant by
following on to follow the Lord. Do not give your hearts to any
other but the One who purchased you with His blood.
In our freedom in Christ Jesus, we may make ourselves servants to all, but there is only one Lord. We may love one another earnestly as brothers and sisters in Christ but our hearts belongs to Him! We may appreciate and honor one another but our devotion belongs to Him! All praise and glory belongs to Him! Though we may minister to others our foremost responsibility is to minister unto Him. Though the bonds of the Spirit join us to each other we are betrothed to Him alone. He that has the bride is the Bridegroom! Does He really have us, dear ones? Does he have our hearts - our minds - our all? Does He possess us, and consume us?
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Photo: Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman as Kate & Leopold. From the DVD jacket.