Pastor Buddy’s Blog

Cool clear water…

Filed in Devotions & Studies, General |

Journal,

Well, looks like the time has come to write about my musical escapades. Maybe someone will find this of interest. 

My first store-bought guitar was a Sears and Roebuck Silvertone. (In the 50s. Now a vintage. Stopped making them in 1980.) I worked hard to get enough money to buy that guitar and amp. I would sit in my bedroom for hours on end with my guitar, my amplifier, and my Eddy Arnold record. Boy, I had Eddy’s ‘Cattle Call’ down to the yodel. (I’ve been tempted to write a Christian song to include some yodeling with it. That would give everyone a shock treatment.) 

I dearly loved Eddy Arnold. Could never get enough of Tennessee Stud, Cattle Call, Cool Clear Water, and Make the World Go Away. If you are interested here is a clip of Eddy’s music; Tennessee Stud and Cattle Call.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-VcnVtvDtG8

Well, that was the beginning of my love affair with the guitar. Had a band in high school; The Dizzy Cats. Played at school basketball games half time, also in a night club in Alexandria, and for private parties. (Not bragging, mind you.) This carried over into my Navy days. Even had a shipboard band. We would play in seaport night clubs. 

The interesting thing in all this  is that I still can’t read the first note of music. In fact I don’t even know the names of many of the chords that I play. Yup, I only play by ear. (Really by heart.)

I don’t rightly know why I fell in love with the guitar. In addition to two banjos, a mandolin, a couple harmonicas, I have several guitars. And my favorite guitar of all is the 12 string guitar. I’ve worn out or passed on guitars to my boys. Guess Betty says it well enough when she says that my love for music has passed right on to my kids. All of them can play the guitar to some extent as well as other instruments. 

What’s all this got to do with cool water….

Didn’t think you would ever ask. I really wasn’t bragging on my past music exploits. Just wanted you to see where some of my love for music has been. And while I love all kinds of music, its the country sounds, especially ballads, that always held the dearest place in my heart.

So now you know why you can take boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.

But the real point I wish to make is that in June, 1964, something happened to my heart that forever changed my deepest feelings for music. I met the Lilly of the valley. I met the bright Morning Star, the fairest of ten thousand. Oh yes, I met the Shepherd of Israel. I can truly say that Jacob’s and David’s Shepherd is also my Shepherd.

I know — Some may ponder if the ancients really knew about Jesus, but they did. They just knew Him by varied names. An example is where Jacob prophesies over his sons. Listen to what he says over Joseph:

“Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall. The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely, yet his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel)…” (Gen 49:22-24 ESV)

And ever since met Jesus, it seems that all the music in my heart springs for from Him and is about Him. There is just something about God’s Son that seems to leave little room in your heart for much of anything else. Sure, I have my moments of nostalgia but they rarely last very long.

This is where I want to share another devotional that will speak to having the presence of Jesus in our life. Let’s call it…

In the Presence of the Divine…

In this devotional I want to share what the term ‘eternal life’ actually means. As a way of approach, let’s ask three questions. Does eternal life simply mean that we will live eternally? Or, eternal life mean that there is a life that comes from God, that believers now enjoy? Or, does eternal life merely speak of our going to heaven?

Eternal life means all these things and more. Eternal life certainly means a ‘forever-ness’ in heaven. But eternal life also addresses a reality of life in which every believer can right now draw from the presence of the Divine. And this is why eternal life can never be attached to a religion. Religion is what men do. Eternal life is what God gives us in Christ. Eternal life is where our strength comes from.

A certain thing happens when a person is born again. This certain thing is a discernable awareness that a change has taken place in life. Its not merely an emotion. Emotions come and go. This change has a permanent effect. The newly born person now has what can be called ‘God awareness.’ And the interesting thing is that the God awareness doesn’t go away. It will be there the next morning. It will be there even in a time of failure.

Before I go further, let’s gather some Scriptural support for how the Divine is implanted in the human spirit at the moment of our birth from above. When a person is born again they are given what the Bible refers to as ’the testimony.’

Jesus said,

“The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

The Lord had just said,

“That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6-8)

The spirit of man is considered to be the deepest part of the human’s inner make-up. And the Spirit of God is no less than the deepest of God Himself. Put these two things together and you have Divine life in the inner man. No person can be born again and not know it. When our spirit is filled with Divine life, we know it. We may not be able to explain it, but no one can take away what God has done in our spirit.

Paul later explains it thus;

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God.”

He then says,

“Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.” (1 Cor. 2:12,13)

How deep is this life interchange with the Divine? Paul adds that the Spirit of God has the ‘deep’ of God in Him. It is this deep of God that we began to experience as an outworking of our birth from above.

As for the testimony that cannot be refuted, the apostle said,

“The Spirit Himself testifies (bears witness) with our spirit that we are children of God.” (Romans 8:16)

The apostle John says something that may seem a little confusing, but the context has to be considered.

“As for you, the (life) anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His (life) anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.” (1 John 2:27)

The apostle is coming against the false teachers who were trying to convince these young Christians that they alone had an inside track on the things of God. So in order to received anything from God, these young believers had to go to the false teachers. (Boy, do we ever have them with us today.) John says, “No way.” Every child of God knows exactly what God is like, and has the Spirit of God inside them to instruct them in the way of truth.

Later John says,

“The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.” He then says, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (Cf. 1 John 5:9-13)

The wonderful thing about eternal life is that it is not an issue crossing the ‘t’ and dotting the ‘i.’ People can have some of the oddest beliefs, and yet if they have believe in and have received the Son of God for who He is, they have eternal life. No religious group has a corner on God things. There is no ‘best’ religion.

Now let’s center more on the heart of our study, that is, our life ‘in the presence of the Divine.’ When a person truly believes in Jesus Christ, there is an interchange that takes place in the Spirit. They trade their old life for the life of Jesus Christ. He literally enters the human spirit in a spiritual form. And this is what the ‘Abba! Father!’ experience speaks of.

The apostle said,

“Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”

In another place Paul refers to this experience as the seal of the Spirit. The seal itself is eternal, which means it cannot be broken. (Cf. Gal4:6; Eph1:12; 4:30)

From the moment of our birth from above, Divine awareness becomes part of our life. The believer lives with a consciousness of belonging to the Lord. This is why believers become uncomfortable in the presence of sinfulness. No one has a sensitive conscience like that of a true believer. It is this sensitiveness that helps guide the believer into doing what is right before God.

So its not a matter of having permission to sin. It is a matter of a believer’s inability to continue in any form of sin. Its like trying to place a sheep among pigs. The sheep may get muddy in the pen, but he is not going to remain that way. It is contrary to a sheep’s nature to live like the pigs. John said,

“No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot (practice) sin, because he is born of God.” (1 John 3:9)

What a wonderful thing, living in the presence of the Divine, or having a conscious relationship with Jesus Christ. Paul tells us not to ‘grieve’ the Holy Spirit of God. How can we know we have grieved the Spirit of God if there isn’t Divine awareness? We know because the Holy Spirit grieves in us. This sinking feeling we get in times of missing the Lord, is the Lord’s way of say, “You missed it. Lets get it right.”

So, what does eternal life mean? Does it mean that we will live eternally? Does it mean that there is a life that comes from God, that believers now enjoy? Does it merely speak of our going to heaven? It means all this and more.

Eternal life is the life of the Son poured into our spirits. It is the true testimony that we believe in the resurrected Lord of glory. Eternal life carries its own witness. It is Jesus helping us process life to its fullest. Eternal life is having Jesus rise up from within us to declare His own victory. And this is why we are to have faith in Jesus alone.

Paul gives the best description to the life we now have. He says,

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

OK, now that we know what eternal life is, a question remains. How does a person receive eternal life? There is only one answer to that question. And it is quite simple. It is written,

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Just some things to think about…

Have you taken a drink from heaven’s cool, clear, water?

Much love coming your way,

Buddy