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November 12, 2008

Every Knee Shall Bow

 
            Don’t you just love verses in the Scriptures like Philippians 2:9-11? I just get thrilled at the prospect of every knee bowing to God and every tongue confessing Jesus Christ as Lord! I have to make a confession, though. I haven’t always liked that verse for the right reasons.

             There are times in our lives and moments in our Christian walk with the Lord that we receive persecution for our beliefs. Admittedly, here in the United States, so far, “persecution” comes in the form of verbal harassment or discrimination. It can also come in the form of not getting promotions, being ridiculed, or not being allowed to share our faith openly with others in the public forum. I used to teach in the public school system, and there always seemed to be that one or two administrators that always ridiculed people of faith in Jesus, or took advantage of them in the workplace, just because they could. You know the obnoxious acting person who knows you are a follower of Christ, and therefore sets out to press all your buttons, just to watch.

             For years I took comfort in the fact that, as promised in Philippians 2:10 and 11, these people’s knees would bow, and their tongues would confess that Jesus is Lord, instead of cursing Him and His followers, and ridiculing the whole lot. I realized, however, that it was not so much a comfort found in these verses, as much as a sense of revenge or “get even” with that I was hoping for.  I can picture several people right now. Yea, Lord… You show them. When you return, You make them bow that haughty and arrogant knee; and I can’t wait to hear that booming voice reduced to a squeaky little admission that Jesus IS the Lord. Bring down the judgment on my oppressors, Lord! (I remember David saying that several times in the Psalms.) When we get into this type of mentality, however, it is usually the Lord that has to bring down the correction on us!

             While Psalm 83 recently, I was again in the righteous judgment frame of mind. I was beseeching the Lord not to remain quiet, not to be still. I was pointing out, with the Psalmist Asaph, how the Lord’s enemies make an uproar and make plans to come against His people and wipe them out. I was telling the Lord how they were conspiring together. I was asking the Lord, as stated in verses13-15, to “make them like the whirling dust” and like “chaff before the wind”. I was asking God to “pursue them with Thy tempest” and “terrify them with Thy storm”. That ought to do it…And then I read verse 16, and these two little words popped off of the page and into my heart- so  that. The psalmist is asking God to pursue those enemies, make them like dust and chaff, and terrify them so that “ they may seek Thy name, O Lord… that they may know that Thou alone, whose name is the LORD, art the Most High over all the earth.” Ugh. I wanted God to send the fire to judge and get even with. God sends the fire, or trouble, or hard time to draw people to Him. He pursues people to catch them, draw them, and turn their attention from themselves and the world, to Him. He pursues people to save them, not to consume them. I want God to rain fire to exact revenge and prove that God is GOD. God is already confident in His Lordship, and He rains fire to help people notice Him, and accept Him also.

  Second Peter 3:9, says that the Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. It was the heat in my life that brought me to Him. Thank God He did not bring the heat to condemn me for my sinfulness, but rather to convict me and draw me to Him. Some people need more heat than others, but at this point in time, the heat is still the working of a Holy, just and loving God, ever calling, drawing, hoping to turn people’s attention to His divinity and offer of redemption.

             Every touch of the Lord in our lives is to bring us ever closer to Him, and then to heighten and enhance the relationship He establishes with us. He loves to have us close. He knows what is best. He loves us enough to do what it takes, whether that is to get our attention in the first place, or to keep our attention once we are His. He loves us enough to take drastic measures with us, if necessary, to save us from a future of desperate destruction, and separation from Him and His grace and love forever. He would rather put an uproar in our lives for the moment, than have us ashamed and abandoned, and perish forever.

             It is certainly a wonderful thing that God is God and I am not! In many instances in God’s word, he performs great deeds- some for and some against His people, all “that they may know…” that He is. Until He returns in the clouds to Judge, His purpose is to make disciples, and ours should be, too.