Was Jesus a Space Cadet?...part 4
Writer Author Jerry Lee Kay Sr.
Christian Article
:
Jesus Christ
- Fiction No
My old friend John Wolf told me when the first man was expelled from the Garden of Eden he lay down under a tree and slept, with his soul beside him. While he slept the four spirits - Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, stole man's soul and carried it away.
Then the four spirits looked about for a place to hide Holy Spirit so that man could never find it again. The spirit of Earth said, "I will hide it in my depths." The spirit of Water said, "I will sink it into the deepest waters of the sea." The spirit of Air said, "Let me hide it beyond the farthest star."
But the spirit of Fire objected to all these suggestions, saying, "Let me burn man's soul in my flames." To this all the spirits agreed. But in a short while man's soul and the Spirit of God emerged unscathed by the flames. Then at length the four spirits agreed upon another plan, saying: "We will hide the Spirit of God where man will never find it; we will hide it in man's soul within man himself." And so they did, so the legend says.
Well, in whatever way man's soul and the Spirit of God got where it is, Father knows it is there...The problem is that sometimes we don't...We let His Spirit get lost within us...Running in dizzy circles around life's outer edges, we sometimes lose touch with what is at the center. We bury Him in the overgrowth and hold Him down and keep Him where the shadows are. And when we open up ourselves to let some of God's light in, and some of his love. We will discover inward treasures we never knew were there.
If you are one that reads my offerings you will know that Song of Solomon and John are my favorite books in the bible and it is John more than any other who undertakes to tell us what really happened when our Lord entered this world of mankind. He is saying that God was so loving the world that he was giving his own Son. And here in the beginning of the Gospel which bears his name, he says it as only John can say it...The Word was becoming flesh. The light was shining into the darkness. The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. John does not deal with the visible event. He paints no word pictures of the sights or sounds. He writes of the 'inward' realities, the 'outward' sights and sounds were simply the manifestation of what was happening in the deeper spiritual realm.
But there is no way to speak of spiritual things and the nature of reality without some use of physical image. To relay a supernatural truth, we must sometimes choose a word picture which represents it, then paint that picture with the brush strokes of language, and hope readers will be able to understand what I am trying to say...And this, in a masterful way, John does in the beginning of this Gospel. "The light shines into the darkness!"
Come with Poppa if you have the time and let us explore what he means. "The light" certainly this encompasses all of God's care and good intention and love for us. The light "shines"..it is emitted, it comes forth..."Into the darkness." now what's that? Too often we have some vague notion about some nebulous kind of darkness out yonder somewhere which is penetrated by a light. Not so. The darkness he is talking about is within us, it is an aspect of our person. It is into this darkness the light comes, into this spiritual shadow land of our own minds and souls. The "light" is the very personal coming of him in whom "the whole fullness of the deity dwells". The "darkness" is the very personal inner space of our own very human lives. It is into this darkness the light is come.
I think we are made for the light, meant for it, and it for us...I read the book of Genesis and realize that before God said, "Let us make man," he said, "Let there be light."...He put His man into a lighted world. But somehow we got all mixed up with darkness, and our inner selves were infiltrated and flooded by it. Dear friend I am not just talking about the darkness of sin here, I am talking about the darkness of confusion and fear and uncertainty.
But let's be careful now that we do not sell ourselves short. Much darkness as there is within us, don't you think God saw something in us that was worth..coming for?.. reaching for?.. The darkness within us conceals much that is beautiful and of precious worth. God knows the beauty and the values are there..he can see them through the shadows....And so, comes the light, that the darkness may be driven away and the beauty shine forth.
So, lets start our adventure, let's think together about you and me, the wonderful world within us, the inner world of what we are.
We live in a wonderful world. We may look to the east and see the sunrise, to the west and see the sunset, we may listen to the song of birds and the whisper of wind. We may go out in the springtime into the orchard or the flower garden and experience life, we may smell the fragrance of lilac or the aroma of moss on a mountain rock. We may observe the seasons as they change, feel the changing moods of day and night, know the melancholy of rain, the peace of a twilight, or the expectant hush of the dawn. We may lift our eyes and look upon the stars, the vast galaxies and the deep of space. We may behold the mystery and wonder of light. We may travel to distant places and view the mighty mountains, the wide seas, the deep jungles and fertile plains and fields of growing grain. We may let our gaze sweep the earth and behold the marvels of man's creative genius, the great structures and machines, the ships that sail the sea and air and go even where the air
is not.
Yes, it's out there - the wonderful world we live in. We may travel to see it, reach to touch it. But there is another world, the world within, the world of what we are, the world of the inner heart. It is the world of deepest hunger and longing, of highest aspiration and dream, the world of struggle and quest, the world of feelings too deep for words. It is the world where everything that has meaning must at least give account of itself.
The human body is wonderful - with its systems, checks and balances, thermostats and controls and communication devices. But it is not these of which I would speak. I speak of the world you are, not of the body you have, nor of the world in which you live, but of the world of what you are - a world of joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, the inner world where great emotions surge and ebb like ocean tides, a world of deep awarenesses where profound sensibilities are. The psalmist declared, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made" He was. And so are you.
When the psalmist said that, he wasn't thinking of body parts, as wonderful as all these are. He was thinking, I believe, of all that happens in the inner world in a lifetime of years. There is the rosy glow of childhood, with fancies and fairies, and the slow dawning of insight, and growing pains. There is the romance of early adulthood, reachings and yearnings, the search for identity, the realization of love and struggle. There is the adventure of the creative years; then the nostalgia of advancing age. And through it all there is laughter and there are tears and the intricate criss-cross of lights and shadows that form their ever-changing patterns over the landscape of the swiftly passing years.
Yes, it's a wonderful world, this world within. Feeling its wonder, the psalmist in great excitement spoke to his own soul: "Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name!"....All that is within me!...How much is that?...We get a little glimpse here and there, a little bit of suggestion now and then. Who knows, really? Who can imagine?...But there is much there. I suppose no one could ever know it's there until it comes out..but it can. Sometimes it comes out, and sometimes it doesn't..but it's in there..this wonderful world of the inner heart.
It's wonderful in its capacity. There is the ability to love. All the human love that is anywhere is in there, not out there in the world of things. It's wonderful also in its potential to be bright and beautiful or dark and dismal. And there's nothing out there that has meaning until it means something inside. Here is the ultimate proving ground of all values. Things are of no worth in themselves. They are worthless unless they add to the world within, unless they can become instruments to add content, quality, enrichment, resources of power, and wellsprings of peace.
I like what Thomas Gray wrote: "Many a rose blooms to blush unseen..and waste its fragrance on the desert air." I believe God enjoys a rose, and every blooming rose is therefore a thing of value. But so far as we human creatures are concerned, the rose is a thing without worth unless a human spirit is able to receive and be enriched and inspired by its beauty...A treasure of sunsets, a fortune in starlight - these but pass away in waste if there is no human spirit in which they can invest themselves, and be translated into spiritual quality...quality and content to the inner spirit of him who has it in possession and to the inner spirits of those around it. Someone says, "We live in deeds..not years in thoughts..not breaths..in feelings..not in figures on a dial..and we should only count time by heartthrobs."
I have been trying to illustrate for you the immense dimension and importance of the wonderful world of inner spirit. Now let me say, it is into this world that the light shines. God knows where his light is needed most..and where it will do the most good, where it will make the most difference. So he beams his light into our darkness, revealing the beauty that is there.....continued.
God Bless You
Poppa
jk@poppak.org
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